Social Justice — Class 11 Political Science

This chapter explores justice, which concerns how public life is ordered and how social goods and duties are distributed. In ancient India justice was linked to dharma; Confucius linked it to rewarding the virtuous; Plato in The Republic, through Socrates, argued it is in our own long-term interest to be just, since justice involves the well-being of all. The modern idea, drawing on Immanuel Kant, holds that all human beings possess dignity and so justice requires giving due and equal consideration to all. The chapter sets out three principles of justice: equal treatment for equals (equal rights and no discrimination by class, caste, race or gender), proportionate justice (rewarding people in proportion to the scale and quality of their effort), and recognition of special needs (giving extra help on grounds of disability, age or lack of access to education and health). Governments must harmonise these principles. Just distribution may require redistributing resources, as with India's abolition of untouchability and land reforms. The chapter presents John Rawls' theory: under a "veil of ignorance", not knowing our future position, rational people would choose rules fair to the worst-off. It closes with the debate between free markets and state intervention in pursuing social justice.