John Rawls’ theory of justice

INTRODUCTION

John Rawls’ theory of Justice is of central importance in political practice and theory. In defending or opposing laws, public policies and administrative decisions of governments, appeals are made to notions of justice. Justice is additionally invoked in social and political movements, direct action and satyagraha campaigns. John Rawls’ theory of Justice ,Thus, the civil rights or civil liberties movements are essentially movements for justice. So are the dalit, feminist and environmental movements. While an honest or good society or polity must have several virtues, justice is, consistent with a widespread view, the primary of them. 

 

Rawl’s Theory of Justice

Critique of Utilitarianism 

John Rawls’ theory of Justice Rawls’s principles of social justice are a corrective to the liberal-utilitarian principle of the best happiness of the best number. What then are his objections to utilitarianism? Rawls recognises that liberal utilitarianism marked a progressive, welfare-oriented departure from classical liberalism’s preoccupation with individualistic rights. Yet, utilitarianism is, in Rawls’s view, a morally flawed theory of justice. Its moral flaw is that it justifies or condones the sacrificing of the great of some individuals for the sake of the happiness of the best number. For the utilitarians, the criterion of justice during a society is that the aggregate sum of utility or happiness or welfare it produces, and not the well-being or welfare of every member of the society.

 

Rawls’s Liberal-Egalitarian Principles of Justice

According to Rawls, a stable, reasonably well-off society is “a cooperative venture for mutual advantage.” along side cooperation, there's also conflict among its members regarding their share of the burdens and benefits of social living. the aim of principles of social justice is to make sure that the distribution of the advantages and burdens of society is simply or fair to all or any its members. John Rawls’ theory of Justice the essential institutions of society should, consistent with Rawls, be so constructed on make sure the continuous distribution of “social primary goods” to all or any the members of society during a fair or simply manner. “Social primary goods” are goods, which are distributed by the essential structure of a society. They include rights and liberties, powers and opportunities, and income and wealth.

 

The agreement Procedure 

So far, our focus has been on the content or substance of Rawls’s principles of social/distributive justice. John Rawls’ theory of Justice  allow us to now turn briefly to his method or procedure of argumentation in defense of these principles. Why, consistent with Rawls, should we accept his principles, instead of another principles (say, the utilitarian or libertarian principles), as principles of just or fair distribution? Briefly stated, Rawls’s response is that a agreement method or procedure of political deliberation respects the Kantian liberal-egalitarian moral idea of the liberty and equality of all persons which an agreement or contract received through such a way or procedure is simply or fair to all or any the parties thereto contract. 

 

The Basic Structure of Society

Rawls has persuasively shown that social justice is of crucial importance to social life which it should inform constitutions, laws, policies, legal processes, etc. John Rawls’ theory of Justice , In fact, consistent with him, the first subject of justice is that the basic structure of society. His principles of social justice justifies, and is justified by, liberal democracy, a regulated free enterprise and therefore the liberal-egalitarian state . He states that for translating his Difference Principle into practice, the govt should have four branches, viz., 

i) an allocation branch “to keep the worth system workably competitive and to stop the formation of unreasonable market power” 

ii) a stabilisation branch to cause “reasonably full employment” and, jointly with the allocation branch, to take care of the efficiency of the free enterprise 

iii) a transfer branch to attend to “the claims of need and an appropriate standard of life” and 

iv) a distribution branch “to preserve an appropriate justice in distributive shares” by taxation measures and adjustments in property rights.

 

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