ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to bring together in a creative way two bodies of literature that often seem to run on parallel tracks with only the barest mutual acknowledgment. One is the steadily expanding range of works in political theory on social or distributive justice. The other is the body of empirical work on people's beliefs about justice and the expression of these beliefs in practice. Focusing for the present on desert, equality, and need, it is worth noticing an asymmetry between desert and need on the one hand and equality on the other. When Deutsch originally introduced his tripartite classification of principles of justice he hypothesized that equality would be favored in relationships in which the fostering or maintenance of enjoyable social relations is the common goal, whereas need would be favored where the fostering of personal development and personal welfare is the common goal.
