PRIVATE PROPERTY IN LIBERAL APPROACHES

Abstract

The constitutions of the so-called “social democratic welfare state” protect the right to private property. Simultaneously, their governments are committed to achieve sustainable development, which involves -among other factors- the eradication of poverty. In such a framework, it is certainly difficult to assess the extent to which distributive restrictions on private property are supposed to be justified. In order to shed some light on this topic, the paper makes use of two analytical categories and applies them to the thought of some authors usually identified with political liberalism.