The political economy of social justice The political economy of social justice
Dr.R.Murali
Head of Department of Philosophy and Centre for Philosophical Inquiry
The Madura College (Autonomous), Madurai -625011.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. "- Margaret Mead
I
Social justice refers to conceptions of justice applied to an entire society. It is based on the idea of a just society which gives individuals and groups fair treatment and a fair share of the profits of the company. Consequently, ethics has many areas to exploit. The economy is a major area of ethics. According to Aristotle, the economy is a concrete expression of a fundamental virtue ethics rooted in justice. This concept of justice has been described as distributive justice or a fair share for all. In other words, the concept of social justice has been accepted as being rooted in an ethical base or simple common sense and the economy can not be separated from that situation. Similarly the economy and politics are inseparable. Social justice is both a philosophical problem and an important issue in political economy.
Arguably everyone wants to live in a just society, but different political ideologies have different conceptions of what constitutes a "fair society" really is. The term "social justice" tends to be used by ideology who believe that society today is very unfair - and they are generally left wing ideologies, advocating greater use of democracy and the redistribution of income a more egalitarian society and a mixed economy model or a non-market based economy. The right wing has its own conception of social justice, but believes it is generally best achieved through embracing meritocracy, the functioning of a free market, and promoting philoanthropy and charity. Right and left tend to agree on the importance of the rule of law on human rights, and some form of a social safety net (even if the left supports a wider as the law).
Social justice is a concept that some use to describe the movement towards a socially just world. In this context, social justice is based on concepts of human rights and equality. Thus, a broad definition of social justice is that "social justice reflects the way human rights are manifested in the daily lives of people at all levels of society." It can be defined as working towards a world where all members of society regardless of their origin, have basic human rights and equal opportunity of access to the benefits of their society .
Many philosophers like Thomas Aquinas, Locke, Bentham, Mill, Kant and others have discussed the issue of social justice in their works. In the late twentieth century, the concept of social justice has been widely associated with political philosopher John Rawls (1921-2002), based on the ideas of Bentham and Mill's utilitarianism, social contract ideas of Locke, , categorical imperative ideas of Kant. His first statement has been presented in A Theory of Justice (1971) where he proposed that "Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the well-being of society as a whole can not override . For this reason justice denies that loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good that is shared by others ", a proposition that echoes Kant in the ethical development of good moral of Justice absolutist terms. His views are def.
Posted on January 22, 2010.
