Discrimination positive : la controverse intellectuelle

The phrase "affirmative action " has been defined as a continuum of different responses to discrimination from measures designed to prevent discrimination against women and nonwhite individuals (protective affirmative action) to measures meant to increase the number of women and nonwhites in a work force by giving them preference. Because affirmative action has raised critical questions, it serves as the line that divides intellectuals who are engaged in a moral debate concerning fundamental notions of justice and equality with a significant overlap between the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment of the United States Constitution and philosophical conceptions of justice. Is affirmative action still necessary in the 1990s ? Several questions for consideration emerge among the principal philosophical arguments because they reflect the most critical moral conflicts in the Academy and within the Liberal culture. This article recalls the historical factors leading to affirmative action and, after delimiting the scope of the analysis, describes some of the most salient features of libertarian, conservative, contractarian, egalitarian and marxist conceptions while attempting to show an evolution of both liberals and conservatives with a claim for de-racialized, colorblind economic and social programs.Clary Françoise. Discrimination positive : la controverse intellectuelle. In: Revue Française d'Etudes Américaines, N°81, juin 1999. L'Affirmative Action en question. pp. 25-45