Question

2. In discussing the work of Robert Nozick, it was argued that libertarian ethics have been adopted most enthusiastically by those who believe in a limited role for government. But we also noted that it is by no means clear that a laisser-faire approach is necessarily implied. Three difficult issues arise in connection with the principle of just acquisition: What should government do about unjust holdings? How are open access or common property resources to be dealt with? How do external effects and public goods relate to the concept of just acquisition? Sketch out reasoned answers to these three questions.

Answer 1

Unjust Holdings

In case of unjust holdings, Nozick believes that, the government should make sure that the division of the property is in a just manner. This can be possible by following the below mentioned conditions when a property holding has been classified as just by Nozick -

1. If it is inherited by someone previously and voluntarily transfered to someone else
2. If it is previously unowned by anyone, and allocating it to one person does not interfere with the wellbring of others
3. If some reallocation is done to correct some previously made unjust property allocation

Open Access resources / Common Pool resources

In case of open accesss resources, the problem is that of free riding. To prevent this, there should be some criteria to use the resource. This can be in the form of some qualifcation, entry fee, etc. For common pool resources which are owned by some community together, the problem of overutilization can be reduced by certain restrictions to the use of the resource per person as specified by some authority.  

Public goods and externality

Utilization of public goods are a cause of externality as there is a possibility of overutilisation and free-riding. This allocation can be made just, as in, it can be made available only to those sections which need some form of assistance from the government for their well being by following some of the aforementioned regulations. This will lead to a more egalitarian allocation of these resources.