Can Rawls’ Theory of Distributive Justice Become a Cure for Poverty?

Year 2022, Issue: 71, 539 - 565, 31.12.2022

Ülker Yükselbaba

https://doi.org/10.26650/annales.2022.71.0010

Abstract

Rawls, a leading thinker of our time, attempted to develop an understanding of justice that reconciles liberty and equality in his work A Theory of Justice (1971). Rawls constantly revised his theory of justice and took it to an international level with The Law of Peoples. A Theory of Justice was met with great interest, but it was also heavily criticized. The aim of this paper is first to review Rawls’ A Theory of Justice in broad terms and then to present the objections raised. Ultimately, the goal is to present my objections based on the impossibility of the Rawlsian theory of justice with some examples. Specifically, examples of the widening gap between the poor and the rich under Covid-19 conditions and the enormous increase in the incomes of the rich are addressed.

Keywords

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Distributive Justice, Justice as Fairness, Original Position, Veil of Ignorance, Capitalism, The Difference Principle, Equal Opportunity

References

• Arnhart L, Political Questions: Political Philosophy from Platon to Pinker (4th edn, Waveland Press Inc 2015)
• Barry NP, An Introduction to Modern Political Theory (3rd edn, The Macmillan Press ltd 1995) Brian B, The Liberal Theory of Justice (Oxford University Press 1973)
• Cohen GA, ‘Incentives, Inequality, and Community’, The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Stanford University (1991)
• ——, Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality (Cambridge University Press 1995)
• ——, If You’re an Egalitarian, How Come You’re So Rich? (4th edn, Harvard University Press 2002)
• Fleischacker S, A Short History of Distributive Justice (Harvard University Press 2004)
• Freeman M, ‘Introduction: John Rawls – An Overview’, The Cambridge Companion to Rawls (Cambridge University Press 2003)
• Ghosh J, ‘The Political Economy of Covid-19 Vaccines’ The India Forum (3 March 2021) <https:// www.theindiaforum.in/article/political-economy-covid-19-vaccines> accessed 15 October 2022
• Gneiting U, Lusiani N and Tamir I, ‘Power, Profits and the Pandemic’ (Oxfam GB for International 2020) <https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/power-profits-and-pandemic>
• Hamilton P, ‘Editor’s Foreword’ in Bryan Turner, Equality (Ellis Horwood Limited)
• ‘Inequality Kills’ <https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621341/ bp-inequality-kills-170122-en.pdf;jsessionid=287BCECEE53DE85B319E0C548F97C087? sequence=9> accessed 19 January 2022
• Kelly E, ‘Editor’s Foreword’ in John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2001)
• Kolm S-C, Modern Theories of Justice (MIT Press 2002)
• Kymlicka W, Contemporary Political Philosophy (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2002) Lovett F, Rawls’s A Theory of Justice: A Reader’s Guide (Continiuum I P G 2011)
• ‘Monitoring Metrics Related to the Global Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy in a Changing World: July 2022’ (2022) Meeting Report <https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/monitoring-metrics- related-to-the-global-covid-19-vaccination-strategy-in-a-changing-world--july-2022-update>
• Nozick R, Anarchy, State and Utopia (Blackwell, Reprint 1999)
• P. Pomerleau W, ‘Western Theory of Justice’ (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) <https://iep. utm.edu/justwest/#H5> accessed 22 October 2021
• Rawls J, ‘Justice as Fairness’ (1958) 67 The Philosophical Review 164
• ——, A Theory of Justice (Oxford University Press 1971)
• ——, ‘Basic Liberties and Their Priority’, The Tanner Lectures on Human Values (1981) <https:// tannerlectures.utah.edu/_resources/documents/a-to-z/r/rawls82.pdf 10/01/2022.> accessed 10 January 2022
• ——, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (Erin Kelly ed, MA: Harvard University Press 2001)
• ——, The Law of Peoples: The Idea of Public Reason Revisited (Harvard University Press 1999)
• Rizvi Z, ‘Reclaiming Global Public Health’ <https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2022/09/20/ reclaiming-global-public-health/#more-31291> accessed 18 October 2022
• Rubinstein D, ‘Capitalism, Social Mobility, and Distributive Justice’ (1993) 19 Social Theory and Practice 183
• Samuel G, ‘John Rawls: A Theory of Justice’ in Anthony de Crespigny and Kenneth Minogue (eds), Contemporary Political Philosophers (Dodd, Mead Company 1975)
• Sandel MJ, ‘The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self’ (1984) 12 Political Theory 81
• ——, Justice: What’s the Right Thing To Do? (Cambridge University Press 1998)
• ——, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (Cambridge University Press 1998) Schmidtz D, Elements of Justice (Cambridge University Press 2006)
• Schwarzschild M, ‘Constitutional Law and Equality’ in Dennis Patterson (ed), A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory (2nd edn, Blackwell Publishing)
• ‘They Pledged to Donate Rights to Their COVID Vaccine, Then Sold Them to Pharma’ <https:// khn.org/news/rather-than-give-away-its-covid-vaccine-oxford-makes-a-deal-with-drugmaker/> accessed 17 October 2022
• Turner B, Equality (Ellis Horwood Limited 1986)
• Wacks R, Understanding Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Legal Theory (3rd edn, Oxford University Press 2012)
• Wallerstein I, The Capitalist World-Economy (Cambridge University Press 1980)
• ‘World Inequality Report 2022’ <https://wir2022.wid.world/executive-summary/> accessed 15 October 2022