Abstract

Affirmative action is preferential treatment in recruiting, hiring, or promoting individuals belonging to groups which have been victims of discrimination. It attempts to remedy the effects of this previous discrimination. While this effect is the problem or puzzle, and affirmative action is the proposed solution, many perceive affirmative action to be a greater danger than the problem it attempts to resolve. ;In addition to analyzing the fairness of affirmative action, this dissertation uses the language and logic of Thomas S. Kuhn in his The Structure of Scientific Revolutions to place the debate over affirmative action into a context which allows larger questions to be asked about American political theory. Borrowing from Kuhn's analysis, this dissertation argues that the dominant political paradigm in America is liberal democratic theory. It further argues that contemporary American conservatives, who oppose affirmative action, and contemporary American liberals, who often support affirmative action, are the two poles of liberal democratic theory. Both poles believe in the core value of equality of opportunity. The dissertation argues that much of the disagreement between the two poles results from the way they define equality of opportunity. Contemporary conservatives define equality of opportunity in procedural terms while contemporary liberals emphasize substantive considerations. ;Contemporary liberals have proposed affirmative action as the solution to the puzzle of inequality resulting from previous discrimination, but this dissertation argues that it is inconsistent with basic principles of liberal democratic theory. If there is no alternative to affirmative action, then the theory is at least back in a Kuhnian puzzle phase. This dissertation looks at several alternatives to affirmative action, but suggests that they too may be inadequate for dealing with the legacy of previous discrimination. The dissertation concludes that the affirmative action dilemma may suggest an anomaly, or unsolvable puzzle, for the liberal democratic paradigm