Distributive Justice and the Dynamics of Development

Of the two broad categories of economic well-being - equity and efficiency — the former is much more important. The first consideration is Philippine history, in which the dominant component has been political history. Both the colonial and post-colonial eras have been replete with violence, and consequent political changes, which have been largely attributed to economic injustices. Over the centuries, the Filipino people have taken bold political steps based on their perceptions of such injustices. In particular, it cannot be denied that the present Muslim rebellion and the communist threat are connected to economic inequities. In short, distributive justice, unlike economic growth, is crucial to the security of the state.

In any case, the Philippine economy has already had quite a good post war growth record (at least, prior to the most recent balance of payments and subsequent debt crises). Real per capita income more than doubled during 1950-80; yet, as recent dramatic events have again demonstrated, the economic foundation for political stability obviously got no stronger. In short, the efficacy of mere growth without redistribution as a path towards meaningful national well-being has petered out.

At the same time, it seems that all political groups take it for granted that the government must play a very prominent role, if not assume complete responsibility, for achieving national development. Regardless of which interest group or ideology may happen to hold the political upperhand at any given time, all contending parties appear to maintain that the remedies to distributive problems should properly come about through public programmes and through institutional changes initiated by the government sector.

In this context, there is no way for the social sciences to be completely neutral. In the field of economics in particular, where the issues of efficient allocation of resources and of productivity have long dominated policy discussion, statistical activities, development planning and research in general, to continue with past tradition is in effect to support the status quo in the area of distributive justice.