This is for Steve (and all others interested in social theory): Have you read any of this author? I'm currently reading "Justice and the Politics of Difference" and I think that you might find it quite interesting, if you can get past the ever-present feminist tendency to pat themselves on the back for pretty much everything good that's happened in the last hundred to hundred and fifty years. Of particular interest to you, I think, are her ideas on the distribution-based justice system, and how true justice isn't just about distributing resources, and the interest-group oriented decision-making process present in our capitalist welfare society, and how it has depoliticized social life, and left the common person pretty much out of the loop while he is oppressed from all manner of things--even those that are meant to protect him. Her ideas about the former resonate with the socialist views that you seem to adhere to, in much the same way that a grape goes well with a piece of marble cheese. The latter quite wonderfully illustrates how our current society works, and underlines the flaws inherent with that operational model. I'm only on page 90 or so, but it's really quite interesting. Not without problem, of course, but what is? Let me know what you think, when and if you ever get around to reading it, or if you just want a summary, let me know that too, and I'll see what I can type up for you :)