Prescribing Institutions Without Ideal Theory*

Abstract

PRELIMINARIES P OLITICAL philosophers are not shy to prescribe ways to design social and political institutions so as to eradicate or at least mitigate various actual injustices.The conventional wisdom is that such prescriptions are the province of nonideal theory but that ideal theory is required as a guide for nonideal theory.On this view, our first task is to specify fully just principles of regulation-that is, principles that regulate the constitution of fully just institutional arrangements.1 These principles subsequently guide and constrain our attempts to prescribe institutional solutions to address actual injustices. 2 Call this the ideal guidance approach to institutional design.This view is mistaken, or so I will argue.Ideal theory does not yield guiding principles that actual institutions must aim to realize, even if only approximately.Fortunately, the conventional wisdom is also avoidable.Recent debate on the relationship of ideal theory to nonideal theory suffers from a dearth of clear alternatives to the ideal guidance approach.On the one hand, those who reject the notion that ideal theory is required as a guide for nonideal theory wind up rejecting ideal theory altogether as "normatively useless" without offering any alternative method for prescribing institutional reforms.3 On the other hand, those who defend ideal theory against this charge wind up defending the notion that ideal theory properly understood is still useful as a guide for nonideal theory despite the limitations noted by critics, in part because there appears to be no other way to go about prescribing morally progressive institutional reforms.4 *Earlier drafts were presented to audiences in the philosophy and political science departments at the University of Michigan, as well as at the British Society for Ethical Theory Annual Meeting.Thanks to participants for the profitable discussions.I am particularly grateful to Elizabeth Anderson, Zev Berger, Steve Campbell, Bill Clark, Mika Lavaque-

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