IB Philosophy 10.6.5 the Role of Government and Public Policy Notes

The State as Guarantor of Capabilities

1. Nussbaum argues that government bears primary responsibility for securing a minimum threshold of each central capability for every citizen. Unlike approaches that treat the state merely as a protector of property or enforcer of contracts, the capabilities approach demands that political institutions actively create the conditions under which people can live with dignity.
2. As established in 10.6.1, a government’s obligation is to guarantee capabilities, not to compel functionings. The state must ensure that citizens have the genuine opportunity to engage in certain activities and states of being, but it must not force them to exercise those opportunities.
   1. For example, the state should ensure access to adequate nutrition and healthcare, but it cannot force citizens to eat well or visit a doctor. This distinction preserves individual autonomy while recognising that structural conditions often prevent people from exercising meaningful choice.
3. Nussbaum draws on Aristotle’s political philosophy to argue that the purpose of government is not merely to prevent harm but to promote human flourishing. The state exists to enable people to live well, which requires attention to the material, social, and institutional conditions of a good life.
4. This framework generates specific constitutional obligations. Nussbaum proposes that the central capabilities should be enshrined in constitutional law or equivalent legal protections, giving citizens enforceable claims against the state when capabilities fall below the minimum threshold.

The Threshold Standard and Political Positioning

1. The threshold concept is central to Nussbaum’s political theory. She does not demand that governments equalise all capabilities across citizens, but rather that no person should fall below a certain level on any of the ten central capabilities.
   1. Justice requires meeting this floor, not achieving perfect equality.
2. Nussbaum distinguishes her view from both libertarian minimalism and comprehensive state planning. The libertarian position, associated with thinkers such as Nozick, holds that the state’s only legitimate function is to protect rights of property and contract.
   1. Nussbaum rejects this as inadequate because it ignores the structural conditions that prevent disadvantaged groups from developing their capabilities.
3. Against comprehensive state planning, Nussbaum insists on the value of political liberalism. Drawing on Rawls, she argues that a just society must accommodate diverse conceptions of the good life.
4. The capabilities approach specifies what opportunities the state must secure, while leaving citizens free to pursue their own comprehensive doctrines (their own full beliefs about how to live well, whether religious, philosophical, or cultural).
5. This balance between state responsibility and individual freedom defines Nussbaum’s political philosophy. The government is neither a passive bystander nor an authoritarian planner; it is an active enabler that structures institutions so that every person can develop and exercise genuinely human capacities.

Public Policy and Institutional Design

1. Nussbaum argues that public policy must be designed around the goal of capability promotion. This means evaluating policies not by their contribution to GDP growth or aggregate welfare, but by their impact on the real freedoms available to the least advantaged members of society.
2. Education occupies a central place in Nussbaum’s policy framework. She argues that education is not merely instrumental to economic productivity but is itself a fundamental capability.
   1. A just educational system cultivates critical thinking, emotional sensitivity, and the capacity for reasoned moral judgement.
3. Healthcare policy must guarantee not just the absence of disease but the positive capability of bodily health. Nussbaum criticises approaches that measure health outcomes in purely statistical terms, arguing that policy should attend to the particular vulnerabilities of women, disabled persons, and marginalised communities.
4. Labour and employment policy must protect the capability of practical reason and affiliation. Nussbaum argues that work should not merely generate income but should provide conditions of dignity and respect.