How has Rawls enriched the idea of justice in liberalism?(UPSC CSE Mains 2021 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 1)
- The Rawlsian theory derives its principles of justice by putting rational, self-interested individuals in ''original position'' and behind a ''veil of ignorance'' and then expecting them to choose an outcome which will adhere to equality, and in the absence of equality, favor the least advantaged.
- Rawls places men behind the ‘veil of ignorance’ in a hypothetical original position where individuals are deprived of the basic knowledge of their wants, interests, skills, abilities and of the things that generate conflicts in actual societies. But they will have what Rawls calls ‘a sense of justice’.
- Under these circumstances, Rawls argue, people will agree to accept two principles of justice in the lexical order. First, is the equality principle where each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive liberty compatible with a similar liberty to others. Here, equal liberties can be concretised as the familiar rights of liberal democratic regimes. They include the equal right to political participation, freedom of expression, religious liberty, equality before the law and so on. The second principle is called the difference principle where Rawls argues that inequalities can only be justified, if it benefits the least advantaged.
- John Rawls’s concept of justice has two aspects to it. Firstly, it postulates a “constitutional democracy”, that is, government of laws and one, which is restrained, responsible and accountable. Secondly, it believes in the regulation of the free economy “in a certain way”. “If law and government”, writes Rawls’s, “act effectively to keep market competitive, resources fully employed, property and wealth widely distributed over time, and to maintain the appropriate social minimum, then if there is equality of opportunity underwritten by education for all, the resulting distribution will be just”.
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