Young’s non-ideal theory & Philippine agrarian justice: A critical approach to pursuing genuine agrarian justice

• Main Author: Lim, Iesha Reign Angela O.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2025
• Subjects: Land reform > Philippines; Distributive justice > Philippines; Social justice > Philippines; Iris Marion Young, 1949-2006; Philosophy
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_philo/22; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdb_philo/article/1041/viewcontent/2025_Lim_CompleteVersionETD.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Since the enactment of RA 6657 in 1988 which established CARP as a tool of social justice, today, peasants remain among one of the poorest sectors in society, where landlessness continues to be a reality for many. Using Iris Marion Young’s ideas on the distributive paradigm, this study sheds light on the current state of agrarian justice in the Philippines, by analyzing the philosophical foundation of CARP. With an aim to promote land and income equity, CARP’s main components are the redistribution of land, and distribution of support services. While socially progressive, philosophers such as Iris Marion Young, argue that a distributive approach to social justice has serious limitations. This poses an important question for the Philippine government’s understanding of agrarian justice, whose framework operates around a distributive justice framework. Applying Young’s criticisms to CARP, the paper argues that the Philippine government’s approach to agrarian justice is too narrowly distributive in its scope, failing to tackle the deeper systemic issues that maintain landlessness and poverty. In response, this paper recommends broadening the definition of agrarian justice beyond distribution through Iris Marion Young’s Five Faces of Oppression. As a critical and structural theory, it defines justice through the articulation of oppression– of which the philosopher categorizes into five: Exploitation, Marginalization, Powerlessness, Cultural Imperialism, and Violence. Overall, this paper concludes that while distributive justice measures e.g. CARP, are essential, genuine agrarian justice requires a structural perspective wherein it would: empower farmers to take full control of the agricultural supply chain; promote stronger land rights; recognize them as capable agents of welfare; acknowledge their expressive tools such as street protests in policy-making; privileging them in decisions over agricultural land through preventing agricultural land-use conversion; and in dismantling peasant violence through criminalizing red-tagging, and implementing protection programs. By applying Young’s theory on structural oppression, this study aims to broaden the understanding of agrarian justice, recognizing that true justice for peasants is not limited to redistribution, but in transforming the oppressive social structures that sustain inequality.