Christopher Bennett

Path Dependence and the Limits of Rawls’s Just Savings Principle

This paper examines the limits of Rawls’s just savings principle (JSP). The paper seeks first to establish an understanding of Rawls’s justification of the JSP, before arguing that it is limited in two ways: (1) the focus on savings as a necessary, but not sufficient, condition of justice is incomplete and (2) the principle ought to further specify the form taken by savings. The paper then introduces the concept of path dependence to describe social processes that cut across generations and that draw out potential shortcoming of the JSP.