Property as a Constraint on the State
This chapter argues that private property constrains what the state may do. Figures like John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, and G. A. Cohen have advanced views according to which ownership is not a consideration that significantly hems in the content of just institutions. But this chapter shows that private property has independent weight that must be acknowledged in organizing a just society. A social contract that ignores the independent moral importance of private property is not one that should command our respect. This raises the question of whether it is ever permissible to take someone’s property by force, without which we would arguably be left with anarchy. The answer sketched relies on an anti-free-rider principle that permits us to compel people to contribute to projects we cannot reasonably forgo, which people benefit from and could opt out of, and which they may otherwise free-ride on.