FOR 2104:  Needs-Based Justice and Distribution Procedures

DFG research group "Need-based Justice and Distribution Procedures" aims at contributing to a positive and an informed normative theory of need-based justice which is based on experimental evidence. The need principle lies at the heart of the research concept. According to the need principle the distribution of goods and services should be guided by the satisfaction of acknowledged needs. The first funding period showed the need principle to represent a central principle of justice in decision-making about distribution—though it may be applied in different forms. Exclusion and restriction of the scope of the need principle are possible as well as different kinds of differentiation. The second funding period therefore focusses on different conceptions of need-based justice that arise from or incorporate heterogeneity—i.e., differing group memberships that may result from ascribed or acquired characteristics. The research group will analyze the need principle for possible scope restrictions; detect the extent of differentiation; and test whether the need principle still creates consistent, legitimate, stable and sustainable distribution outcomes even in the presence of pronounced heterogeneity.

DFG Programme Research Units

International Connection Austria, Israel, Switzerland

• Conceptions of Need-based Justice in Administrative Behavior (Applicant Schnapp, Kai-Uwe )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Traub, Stefan )
• Distributive Preferences and Need-Based Justice in Networks (Applicant Kittel, Bernhard )
• Framing in need determination (Applicant Diederich, Adele )
• Justice, Incentives, and Heterogeneous Needs (Applicant Nicklisch, Andreas )
• Measures of Needs-based Justice, Expertise and Coherence (Applicant Siebel, Mark )
• Need-based Redistribution as a Social Contract (Applicant Traub, Stefan )
• Needs-based Justice, Group Membership and Expertise (Applicant Tepe, Markus )
• Needs within and across borders. Experimental investigations on the stability of transnational need-based distribution procedures (Applicants Nullmeier, Frank ;  Pritzlaff-Scheele, Tanja )

Spokesperson Professor Dr. Stefan Traub