Young establishes that her passion for justice originated in the feminist movement and announces plans to challenge distributive theories of justice.

Young argues that distributive theories focus too narrowly on material goods and ignore decision-making processes, the division of labor, and culture.

Young introduces a broad definition of justice requiring all people to develop their capacities and participate in decisions affecting their lives.

Young defines oppression and domination as the two central forms of injustice in the late 20th-century United States.

Young defines exploitation as a form of oppression in which rules about work create disempowerment and inequality between social groups.

Young defines marginalization as the expulsion of a social group from useful participation in economic and social life.

Young criticizes welfare capitalist society for depoliticizing public life by limiting conflicts to distributive issues and treating the existing system as a given.

Young argues that new social movements have emerged since the 1960s to challenge institutional power and politicize cultural and social life.

Young exposes the ideal of impartiality as fictitious, arguing that no person can adopt a universal perspective entirely free of bias.

Young reveals that the ideal of impartiality serves to legitimize a neutral state, bureaucratic authority, and the oppression of non-dominant social groups.

Young argues that racist and sexist oppression persist through unconscious body language and avoidance behaviors, not only through intentional discrimination.

Young rejects assimilation as a goal of liberation and calls for democratic cultural pluralism that affirms the differences of all social groups.

Young argues that affirmative action is insufficient because it leaves in place a hierarchical division of labor and the myth of meritocracy.

Young proposes large regional governments with formal mechanisms to represent all oppressed and disadvantaged social groups in democratic decision-making.

Young concludes that domination and oppression are global phenomena, and that affirming group differences has political relevance beyond Western borders.

Young opens by challenging liberal theories of justice for focusing narrowly on material distribution while ignoring decision-making processes, the division of labor, and culture. She defines oppression and domination as the two central forms of injustice in the late 20th-century United States and introduces exploitation and marginalization as key faces of oppression. She then critiques welfare capitalist society for depoliticizing public life and celebrates new social movements for raising questions of institutional empowerment. Young exposes the ideal of impartiality as a fiction that masks the dominant group's perspective and argues that racism and sexism persist through unconscious body language and avoidance. She rejects assimilation in favor of democratic cultural pluralism, criticizes affirmative action as insufficient, and proposes regional governments that formally represent all oppressed groups. The book concludes that a politics affirming group differences is relevant well beyond the United States.

The core argument: from distributive justice to democratic empowerment.

Young states four foundational assumptions: basic equality is a moral value, deep injustices exist, multiple groups are oppressed, and domination pervades American society.

Young argues that social groups differ from interest groups by sharing a common culture and history rather than a shared political goal.

Young identifies powerlessness as a form of oppression affecting those denied autonomy and respect at work and forced to simply follow orders.

Young identifies cultural imperialism as a form of oppression in which the dominant group's experience is treated as universal while other groups are stereotyped.

Young identifies systematic violence as a form of oppression in which members of a social group live with legitimate fear of attack based on their identity.

Young argues that insurgent social movements are regularly co-opted into the distributive framework through promises of material benefits rather than systemic change.

Young argues that bureaucratic authority contributes to domination by subjecting people to rules they had no part in making.

Young argues that the ideal of impartiality has historically excluded women and people of color from the public sphere by associating them with passion rather than reason.

Young describes how 19th-century scientists measured and compared bodies to generate theories of physical, moral, and aesthetic superiority centered on white men.

Young explains that oppressed groups experience double consciousness, simultaneously holding the dominant group's fearful perspective of them and their own self-knowledge.

Young argues that demanding assimilation disadvantages oppressed groups, allows privileged groups to assume universality, and causes oppressed group members to loathe themselves.

Young uses examples of women's pregnancy rights, Latino bilingual education, and American Indian policies to argue for the differential treatment of social groups.

Young argues that standardized tests reflect white, middle-class values and fail to measure cognitive competence independently of culture.

Young criticizes communitarian theorists for assuming shared subjectivity and argues their preference for small decision-making communities will exclude those who are different.

Young cites ethnic minority movements in the Soviet Union and India as evidence that social groups and their struggles for recognition exist across nations.

Young opens by stating four foundational assumptions about injustice and introduces the concept of social groups as distinct from interest groups based on shared culture and history. She identifies the remaining three faces of oppression — powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and systematic violence — and examines how insurgent social movements are regularly co-opted back into the distributive framework. Young exposes how bureaucratic authority dominates people and how the ideal of impartiality has historically excluded women and people of color from public life as supposedly irrational. She traces the 19th-century scientific origins of bodily standards, explains double consciousness among oppressed groups, and argues that the demand for assimilation carries three distinct oppressive consequences. The pool concludes with Young's defense of group-specific rights using concrete examples, her critique of standardized tests and communitarian theory, and her citation of international ethnic movements as evidence of her theory's broader applicability.

Five faces of oppression and the politics of inclusion.

Young identifies critical theory as her primary methodological tool, embracing its rejection of universal values in favor of historically situated analysis.

Young argues that power is a relational concept that cannot be adequately treated as a distributable possession by liberal theories of justice.

Young contends that all oppressed groups have a privileged counterpart and that individuals belong to multiple social groups that shape their identity.

Young argues that interest group politics draws no distinction between selfish business interests and legitimate normative claims of justice, producing widespread political cynicism.

Young identifies two internal contradictions within welfare capitalist society that create the conditions for new insurgent social movements to emerge.

Young argues that democratic participation is both instrumentally valuable for producing fair outcomes and intrinsically valuable for developing civic capacities in participants.

Young calls for the public sphere to become an open space accessible to all, where no social group is excluded or forced into privacy.

Young traces abjection to the formation of personal identity, explaining why dominant groups unconsciously fear and avoid members of groups defined as other.

Young argues that respectability norms in professional settings reflect white, Anglo, heterosexual, middle-class male standards rather than genuinely neutral criteria.

Young calls for public discussion of unconscious oppressive behaviors and encourages oppressed groups to define themselves through positive self-representation.

Young argues that group identity is relational and shifting rather than absolute, and calls for group-specific rights within a broader framework of civic rights.

Young proposes that oppressed groups receive institutional support for self-organization and collective veto power over policies that directly affect them.

Young argues that all workers must have meaningful input into hiring policies and job criteria as a requirement of genuine workplace democracy.

Young argues that corporate power and state bureaucracies have depoliticized city decision-making, allowing private groups to control land use and development.

Young observes that difference is often understood as absolute otherness in many countries, resulting in domination and violence that her theory must address.

Young begins by establishing critical theory as her methodology and exposing power as a relational rather than distributable concept, revealing a fundamental flaw in liberal justice theory. She identifies the structural contradictions within welfare capitalism that generate new social movements and argues that democratic participation carries both instrumental and intrinsic value for civic life. Young's analysis of impartiality as ideology leads to the revelation that the only just response is a fully open public sphere, while her examination of abjection and respectability norms uncovers the unconscious psychological mechanisms through which oppression operates daily. She calls for public discussion of unconscious bias and encourages oppressed groups to reclaim their identities through positive self-representation. Turning to institutions, Young argues for group veto power, democratized workplaces, and regional governance to counter the depoliticizing force of corporate power, concluding that the global prevalence of domination through absolute otherness makes her theory internationally urgent.