Pluralism, Property, and Radical Transformation

Property theory--the justification for who has access to which resources, for what ends, and when--lies at the heart of political, social and legal thought. Yet from Locke to Bentham, Hayek, Hegel, Marx, and up to the present, thinkers on this subject have taken for granted that there is one right answer to the question: What is Man?

Pluralism, Property, and Radical Transformation offers a novel property theory that rejects this assumption. Drawing on intellectual history, ethics, and political economy, Matthew Kruger argues that we must seriously consider the fact that life is constituted by tragic conflicts between goods. Instead of designing a prescriptive model based on a single anthropology, theory must limit its work to descriptions of what can be done. It must identify goods that give life meaning, the object-relations that form them, and the rights needed to facilitate them--and leave the decision on ’What is to be done’ in light of their inevitable conflicts to politics and law.

Demonstrating the practical relevance of this theory, the book concludes with an analysis of how South Africa’s Constitution embraces it, along with its democratic implications and radical and transformative potential.

Matthew Kruger, PhD, is advocate at the Johannesburg Bar in South Africa.