JURISPRUDENCE

WELFARE LIBERALISM - JOHN RAWLS

27.04.2019
PATRICK A.N. ABOKU
  Introduction
 Justice as fairness
 Social Concentration
 Methodology –
 The Original Position
 The Veil of ignorance
 The rationality of the persons
 General Knowledge
Outline  The good – primary good
 Principles of Social Justice
 The difference principle
 The Principle of Reciprocity
 The Just Savings Principle
 Priority Rule
 Criticisms
  Liberalism is a distributive theory
 Distributive justice relates to the art of developing principles for
redistributing the goods of society in a just and fair both in the
Introduction interest of society and members
  Justice prevails in a just society
 A just society is a society that individuals would subscribe to given the
opportunity to make a choice
 Accident of birth
 Due to the accident of birth the individuals ability to make voluntary choice
not possible

 However, a society which subscribes to justice as fairness would draw

closer to a society which individuals would want to sign onto if given
the opportunity
Justice as  Membership is by social contract thus individual is an important
fairness member of the society in his/her own right
 Thus, individuals join because of the benefit they will get and
 Accept the burdens of society as well
 Every individual has an interest in ensuring he gets fair share of the
benefits
 Thus, it is important the basic institutions of society share the benefits
and burdens fairly
 If this is done, justice as fairness is achieved
  Membership to the society is by social contract
 The purpose of the social contract is to ensure the principles of
justice for the basic structure of society are achieved in the original
Social agreement

Contractarianis  He distinguished his social contract from those of Rousseau, Kant

and Locke
m  For the purpose of gaining entry to society
 Explanation for the existence of society
 To establish a government/state
  Hypothetical original position when rational people of the society
determine the principles that would be favourable for the organization
of the society and its people
 Requirements
 People must see themselves in the original position as free and equal
 The people in the original position must be rational in order to select the
best possible principles for the society
 The choices must be made behind a veil of ignorance –

Methodology  Persons are deprived of their individual circumstances – Gender, class, status etc
 Especially their own concept of the good

: The original  They must have general information

 Biology, sociology, philosophy etc
Position  The structure of society – Men, Women, lawyers etc
 The idea of the good including primary goods e.g. the thin theory of the good
 Understand factors which influence rational choice and regulate human affairs –
e.g. it is better to have more good than less

 The ration d’etre or purpose of the original position is the develop

principles that will serve as building blocks for the basic institution of
society
  According to Rawls, because the people in the original position are
rational people, they will come up with two key principles:
 The principle to protect fundamental civil and political liberties

Principles of  This the most important principle

 Refer to Chapter 5 for Ghana’s position on this

Social Justice  Socio-Economic Equality for all persons

 Equal opportunities to access and occupy positions in society
 If socio – economic inequalities must be allowed, it must be to the benefits
of the least advantaged in society – this is the difference principle
  Rawls theory is about equality
 But people can and should be treated differently if it lead to the
Difference benefit or advantage of the least in society
Principle  Thus, unequal distribution distribution of wealth is only permitted
Explained to the extent that it benefits the entire or least members of the
society
  Rawls latter added two other principles of just that the rational
people in the original position would not fail to put forward
 Principle of reciprocity
 Every member of the society is entitle to equal benefits and burdens
Two other  As no one would subscribe to persistently having to suffer at the expense
of others in society
principles  The just savings principle
 Principle of conservation of societies resources in society for future
generations
 But must be with the consent of worst off members of the society
  States that, the two key principles identified by the rational persons
in the original position are in order of priority
 Rawls prioritized them as follows
 Principle for the protection of liberty is FIRST
 Principle of socio-economic equality is SECOND
 Difference Principle is THIRD

Priority Rule  Thus

 The liberty and freedoms of the members of society must be ensured
before
 Ensuring socio economic equality and if there is the need for unequal
distribution wealth then
 It should be arranged in a manner as to benefit the least advantaged in
society
  Rawls principles for redistributing the wealth of society is not
aggressive enough
 For a welfare liberal his emphasis on individual liberty leaves
much to be desired
 Because his theory favours the position of the least advantaged in
society at the expense of the advantaged, his theory is of
redistribution of wealth as been unequal even though he claims it
Criticisms is for equality
 Critics suggest, the principles reached in the original position
should rather benefit hard working members instead of the lazy
ones – that is the only reason they would be motivated to work even
harder
 Rawls is just replacing the exploitation of the least advantaged with
the exploitation of the hard-working members of the society
Thank You
Discussion