Inequality in the 21st Century : A Normative Study on American Labor Unions Role to Reduce Inequality

Abstract: This essay stretches over several academics fields in order to address a pressing issue in today’s society – the question of inequality. Research has therefore been drawn from the economic, political science and peace-and development field to address this complex problem. The research resulted in a stakeholder analytical framework aiming to identify possible inequality reduction actors in an increasingly globalized and liberalized society. The analytical framework has further been based on the utilitarian, libertarian and rawlsian perspectives of justice in order to identify actors that have a responsibility to consider inequality actions. The framework has in this essay been applied to American labor unions, a historical important inequality reduction actor in the United States. The result showed that to what extent American labor unions should be considered as an inequality reduction actor varies depending on which of the three justice perspectives that one bases the stakeholder framework on. The result further showed that a stakeholder framework for American labor unions based on the rawlsian perspective of justice would generate the greatest responsibility for American labor unions to reduce inequality. The contributions that could be drawn from the essay are mainly the normative justice implications that should be kept in mind when discussing a transformation towards stakeholder capitalism.