Affirmative action (AA)
POINTS COVERED:
1) COMPENSATORY ARGUMENT
2) CORRECTIVE ARGUMENT
3) ‘REVERSE DISCRIMINATION’
4) DIVERSITY/ROLE MODEL
ARGUMENT
5) THE ALLAN BAKKE CASE
A Few Facts
In the US, 8.7% of bachelor, 7.8% of
master and 5% of Ph.D. graduates were
black (year 2000).
Percentage of blacks in total US
population: 12.4%
Another fact
Of 40.000 university professors in
Canada (2008-09), 34.9% were female.
Of the 13.000 full professors, 21.8% were
female.
Female professors’ salaries ≈ 90% of
male professors’ salaries.
One more fact
Norway: publicly listed
corporations must have 40%
representation of women on
boards of directors.
Compensatory Arguments
Principle of compensation:
a) A victim, V, to whom injustice has been done.
b) A perpetrator, P, of the injustice
c) Compensation, C, which redresses the
injustice.
To compensate for the wrong done to V, P pays
C to V.
[N.B. Compensatory arguments are backwardlooking.]
Problems
a) Over- and under-inclusivity: AA
compensates some who have not suffered
injustice and fails to compensate some who
have suffered.
b) Is it feasible to make perpetrators pay
compensation?
c) What is the right level of compensation?
Corrective Arguments
Corrective arguments identify current
(not past) injustice and seek to reform
social institutions so as to eliminate
discrimination.
Reverse Discrimination (RD)
RD is a pejorative term for AA.
Opponents of AA say: If discrimination
against, e.g., blacks in the past is
wrong, then so is discrimination against
white males today.
Counterargument to RD thesis
Discrimination against blacks and women in
the past is different to ‘discrimination’
against whites in AA programmes.
Why? Past discrimination was based on
contempt for, and negative stereotypes of,
the excluded group’; such people were
thought to be “inferior” to others.
Diversity arguments
More diversity in education is a goal
towards which AA programmes can
strive.
Role model arguments
If members of previously excluded
groups become better represented in,
e.g., universities, they can serve a roles
models to students from the same
group who encourage students to
pursue a career in the same profession.
The Allan Bakke case
Civil Rights Act (1964)
Title VI - Nondiscrimination In
Federally Assisted Programs
“no person … shall be excluded from
participation in or otherwise discriminated
against on the ground of race, color, or
national origin under any program or
activity receiving Federal financial
assistance”.
Bakke (cont.)
Fourteenth Amendment (US
Constitution)
No state shall “deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”