ABSTRACT
Having developed final normative positions, theorists will use the relationship between objective status and subjective merit to develop final factual positions. The assertion about subjective merit follows from the assertion about objective status. For the State authorities, the assertion of incommensurate subjective merit follows from the assertion of unequal objective status: if there is objective inequality between women and men with respect to ability to perform the tasks of prison guard successfully, then there is ipso facto incommensurate subjective merit on the part of the claimant to be hired for that position. The Belgian Linguistic case provides alternative formal expressions for substantively identical positions. In order to reach the conclusion that there is objective inequality between French-speakers and Dutch-speakers for purposes of education, the claimants assert that there is incommensurate subjective merit on the part of francophone children: their educational and cultural needs are different from those of Dutch-speaking children.
