9
matrixes of distribution.
8
In the original pie game, one player is assigned to cut the
pie, and the other is told to choose the slice. There is pressure, then, to arrive at
judgments that take equality as a default position in debates about distributing
benefits and burdens. I want to expand this idea to cover a broader range of cases
where we assess two outcomes, as in Divided World:
(1) Half at 100
(2) Half at 200
(2) Everyone at 145
In this case, we are to imagine that the two halves of the world’s population are
unaware of each other’s existence. On reflection, many hold that (1) may be better
than (2), for people are better off on average. Others respond that (1) is worse, since
the inequality in (1) bears no causal relation to welfare of those in (2). This method
asks for our verdicts about states of affairs. But this may ignore the point of view of
actual political agents, who are tasked with producing these end states. It suggests
one worry that we might raise about Pie Cases. Perhaps they are overly concerned
with how things look from the moral point of view of an omnipotent political
engineer, capable of willing end states. What this method bypasses is a sustained
reflection on the process of how goods ought to be distributed. This stock objection
has long been raised against egalitarians.
The alternative way of theorizing distributions is through two-person, small-
scale thought experiments. According to this second type of Pie Case, the aim is to
isolate our judgments about two persons’ relative distributive standing – whether in
the currency of resources or welfare. We ask what each person deserves in light of
her decision history. Consider, for example, a person who enjoys a great amount of
leisure. Then we are asked to contrast her with an individual who makes a
contribution to the market economy. Since we can distinguish the chess addict from
the stock broker by a train of choices they have made, many are likely to judge that
8
James Harrington first introduced the so-called pie game to defend a
separation of powers.
Convention