Prospects for social justice

Abstract

Is the idea of social justice still relevant to the politics contemporary liberal democracies? If we examine the circumstances in which the concept took shape, we find that it was first used by liberals, progressive catholics and others in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to provide an ethical basis for the assessment of existing economic and social institutions. It assumed a broadly organic conception of society: in particular (a) that social justice was to be implemented within a well-defined political community; (b) that institutions such as private property had determinate and discoverable distributive consequences; (c) that the state was able to reform and regulate such institutions; and (d) that for this purpose it was possible to achieve a political consensus on principles of social justice. These assumptions are challenged by recent developments, particularly globalization and multiculturalism, which appear to take us beyond the circumstances of social justice. Against this, it is argued that the role of state continues to be central, particularly in creating the conditions under which nations can compete successfully in global markets; and that cultural differences need not culminate in disagreement about principles of social justice. The pursuit of social justice now depends on development stronger forms of citizenship to offset the fragmenting effects of globalization and multiculturalism.