Equity and Social Justice

Abstract

Scholars and social reformers have long been interested in trying to define “social justice.” In this essay, we present a framework for understanding recent theorizing and research on social justice. First we review equity theory. Aristotle proposed a primitive equity model of social justice; in recent years, social philosophers such as Homans, Adams, and Walster, Berscheid, and Walster have reformulated and extended the model. Next we describe the equality‐proportionality controversy and a simple equity resolution. Finally we speculate concerning the impact of power on society's definition of equity and “perfect social justice.”