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Book No. – 002 (Political Science)
Book Name – Political Theory (Rajeev Bhargava)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE ISSUE OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
3. PROCEDURAL JUSTICE
4. JOHN RAWLS: JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS
5. LIMITATIONS OF RAWLS THEORY OF JUSTICE
6. COMMUNITARIAN CRITIQUE
7. FEMINIST CRITIQUE
8. JUSTICE, CAPABILITIES, AND FREEDOM: AMARTYA SEN’S EXTENSION OF JOHN RAWLS’ THEORY OF JUSTICE
9. END-STATE THEORIES
10. FEMINIST ACCOUNTS OF JUSTICE
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LANGUAGE
Justice
Chapter – 5
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
- Procedural theories of justice do not distinguish between production and distribution.
- These theories argue that there is no abstract principle of distribution that applies to society as a whole.
- Theories of justice in this context are based on individual entitlements.
- The chapter discusses the principles of justice formulated by Robert Nozick and John Rawls, including a critique of Rawls’ work.
- Feminist accounts of justice are also discussed, offering a new approach to arguments about justice.
- The concept of justice is closely tied to the concepts of liberty and equality.
- In everyday life, justice is seen as an attribute of law, but not all laws are just.
- Many political and social movements have focused on opposition to unjust laws, such as the movement against apartheid in South Africa.
- A commonly held belief about justice is that it is always impartial and fair.
- The statue of the goddess of justice in popular culture symbolizes impartiality and fairness.
- Plato’s Republic presents one of the earliest accounts of justice.
- For Plato, justice was one of the four virtues, alongside temperance, wisdom, and courage.
- In Plato’s ideal state, justice is realized when individuals are true to their nature, with different roles for philosophical thinkers and workers/artisans.
- Women are largely absent in Plato’s conception of justice.
- Aristotle emphasized equality, proportionality, and equilibrium in his conception of justice, moving away from the hierarchical view in Plato’s work.
- After Greek philosophy, the concept of justice saw a lull, with ideas derived from divinity, natural justice, or tradition.
- With the secularization of Europe (from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution), new ways of thinking about justice emerged.
- Justice became an idea within the framework of the modern nation-state, no longer viewed as a religious or traditional principle.
- Justice was seen as a set of principles upheld by the state to regulate life and business.
- Despite being presented over 2,000 years ago, Plato’s idea of justice continues to be a central topic in politics and political theory today.
THE ISSUE OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
- Politics is largely about who gets what and why, with essential goods and services like school facilities, food, safe drinking water, and health care often not available to all citizens.
- The distribution of goods and services is often justified by three main criteria: desert, merit, and need.
- Justice is commonly linked with distribution, making it a distributive concept.
- Desert refers to rewards or punishments given based on a person’s actions and efforts.
- Merit is a similar criterion, implying that those who are meritorious should be rewarded. For example, a student who fails an exam might be considered to deserve failure, but circumstances like an ailing family member or an alcoholic parent could affect the student’s performance.
- It is difficult to isolate individual actions from societal factors, such as what is considered desirable, valuable, or meritorious.
- Need suggests that people’s needs should be met regardless of their capabilities. For example, a safai karmachari(cleaner) with a large family could receive a larger flat based on need, while a neurosurgeon with a smaller family might receive a smaller flat, despite differences in profession and income.
- In a world of abundant resources, the question of justice might not arise, but in a world of limited resources, the distribution of goods will always be important.
- Political theorists divide answers to the question of justice into two broad categories: procedural and social theories.
- In procedural theories, justice is satisfied if certain rules are followed, regardless of the outcomes. Justice is a property of individual behavior and not society.
- Individuals are seen as autonomous and rational beings responsible for the consequences of their actions.
- In social justice theories, justice is viewed as a feature of society rather than individual behavior.
- These theories evaluate justice based on how just or unjust a society is, according to agreed-upon criteria.
- Social justice theories are more likely to advocate for the use of the state to uphold justice principles.
- For example, a society might consider it just to restrict access to education for a certain group, enforcing this exclusion with state power.