Lecture 9: Affirmative Action

Provide and explain the three(four) constitutive features of affirmative action

1. Redistributive — shaping how scarce social goods are distributed

2. Group-focused: aims to target a salient social group, individuals are identified based on perceieved group membership

3. Policy benefits groups presently disadvantaged because of past or rpesent discrimination(as a mean of mitigating the ongoing disadvantage among groups)

Three parameters to classify an affirmative action policy

1. The legal norm from which they derive

2. What instruments do the measures use to implement themselves

3. What justification is presentd for affirmative action

What are ascriptive status groups by Max Weber(their specific characteristics) and why are they linked to affirmative action?

Ascriptive groups are not statistical aggregates or associations, they are informal(having no formal goal), involuntary(never founded at a given point), closed(no way of entering or leaving), socially salient, stigmatized and systematically disadvantaged, identity-conferring.

A group must match all these criteria to be “eligible” for affirmative action.

What is the typology of affirmative action based on to distinguish from more indirect to more direct types?

How explicitly and extensively membership in a group is used as a decision-making criterion prior to the selection of applicants.

Explain the difference between Outreach and Positive discrimination as types of affirmative action, their properties(with examples)

Outreach is when a membership in a group us used as a decision-making criterion prior to the selection of applicants.

• An example is positive action — when certain policies are designed to diversify the set of applicants to a given position

• Group membership is explicitly taken into account, but just for broadening the applicant pool, not affecting the selection process itself.

Positive discrimination is when a membership in a group is used as a decision-making criterion within the selection of applicants.

• After the pool had been gathered, a membership in a group is used as a criterion for chosing some candidates over others.

• Basically qualified means that a member of a certain group which meets basic qualifications will be selected over at least one non-member with higher qualifications.

• Another example is using group membership to break a tie between two equally qualified candidates

What is a continuum between positive discrimination and outreach strategies in affirmative action? Explain indirect affirmative action?

The continuum between them is the difference in how broadly group membership is taken into account — differing in how goods are being distributed.

Indirect affirmative action, proposed by Jon Elster is opposite of indirect intentional discrimination, it is measures that are formally neutral, but designed to have a positive impact on the members of the group.

An example are schools in Texas — where top 10% are automatically eligible for any university. Due to schools being segregated, this over-represents latinos and blacks.

Describe the history and notions of affirmative actions under President Lyndon Johnson

While supporting the rights of blacks (“you do not take a person” speech), LBJ was nonetheless an ally of the color-blind approach. The idea was to reduce black unemployment by helping blacks acquire skills that would help them compete. The policies saw a large scale public expenditure devoted to training programs, public works programs that would also include poor white people.

Executive Order 11246: Requirements for non-discriminatory practices in hiring, complying with color-blidness

Explain the Weberian account of affirmative action.

1. Administrative rationalization — how processes are rationalized(explained) withini organizations and bureaucracies. This involves the formalization of rules, procedures and structures to achieve efficiency and predictability. Affirmative actions involve structured procedures of hiring. Moreover, it may be efficient from the perspective of reducing violence short-term.

2. Efficiency — resources are allocated to achieve administrative goals. Promoting diversity and inclusion can be seen as a strategic approach to enhancing organizational effectiveness and efficiency(by tapping into a wider pool of perspectives)

3. Monopoly of legitimate force — State has a monopoly on force(violence). Affirmative action the state may enforce affirmative action laws for public positions or for positions in the private sector(quotas)

Explain how the 1964 acts basically refutes affirmative action

“Cannot refuse to hire anyone based on sex, religion, race etc => Protects whites to due to '“anyone” => disallows companies to set up programs to help minorities.

How can affirmative action be seen as a legitimate short-term policy: examples from the US history.

Affirmative action may serve as a crisis management tool. In the late 1960s, there were black riots which caused more than 500 mil. in property damages. Government feared race-based uprisings due to high black unemployment. Therefore, it acted.

Moreover, it is preferrable that AA police officers are hired to patrol black neighbourhoods.

The 1967 Newark riot resulted in affirmative action in acceptance of AA freshmen.

The failurse of organizations in affirmative action

First, civil rights movements who actively supported it were and remained very fringe.

The bureaucratic rationalization of antidiscrimination laws — the efficiency of implementation was measured by how many blacks were hired, but it was really slow and inefficient.

Ex post facto validation by the SC

Griggs V. Duke Power company decision, Equal employment opportunity act, United Steelworkers V. Weber.

Explain the course of thinking of the EEOC and its history. How did this end up indirectlyn forcing affirmative action. What does it have to do with bureaucratic rationalization?

Initially, it was severely bureaucratically underpowered, and could not dispatch all the complaints it had gotten. First, it had to be the one to bear the burden of proof of employer’s discrimination. This could obviously not be met.

Only after Griggs V. Duke Power, was the employer forced to disclose statistics. After the 1972 equality of opportunity act EEOC got the opportunity to launch its own investigations.

Then, the administrators assumed their performance would be evaluated based on the number of black employees working their company. The EEOC could not increase the representation of blacks in jobs through setting up costly skills programmes, and it would still assess “discrimination” by the number of blacks. This then pushed the employers to engage in some form of affirmative action, since blacks were still underqualified at the time.