Reconceiving Rawls’s Arguments for Equal Political Liberty and Its Fair Value

Social Theory and Practice 38 (2):258-278 (2012)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Few have discussed Rawls's arguments for the value of democracy. This is because his arguments, as arguments that the principle of equal basic liberty should include democratic liberties, are incomplete. Rawls says little about the inclusion of political liberties of a democratic sort – such as the right to vote – among the basic liberties. And, at times, what he does say is unconvincing. My aim is to complete and, where they fail, to reconceive Rawls's arguments and to show that a principle requiring equal political liberty and its fair value is an appropriate component of his theory of justice.

Similar books and articles

Rawls and the status of political liberty.Steven Wall - 2006 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 87 (2):245–270.
A Modified Rawlsian Theory of Social Justice: “Justice as fair Rights”.Rodney G. Peffer - 2008 - Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 50:593-608.
Fair Equality of Opportunity.Larry A. Alexander - 1985 - Philosophy Research Archives 11:197-208.
Against Rawlsian equality of opportunity.Richard J. Arneson - 1999 - Philosophical Studies 93 (1):77-112.
Rawls and Natural Aristocracy.Matthew Clayton - 2001 - Croatian Journal of Philosophy 1 (3):239-259.
The liberty principle and universal health care.Benjamin Sachs - 2008 - Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 18 (2):pp. 149-172.
Rawls on Liberty and Domination.M. Victoria Costa - 2009 - Res Publica 15 (4):397-413.
Civic respect, political liberalism, and non-liberal societies.Blain Neufeld - 2005 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 4 (3):275-299.
The coherence of Rawls's plea for democratic equality.Percy B. Lehning - 1998 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 1 (4):1-41.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-11-24

Downloads
530 (#31,288)

6 months
94 (#38,285)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Meena Krishnamurthy
Queen's University

Citations of this work

Shared intentions, public reason, and political autonomy.Blain Neufeld - 2019 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 49 (6):776-804.
Nonideal Justice as Nonideal Fairness.Marcus Arvan - 2019 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 5 (2):208-228.
Freedom, money and justice as fairness.Blain Neufeld - 2017 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 16 (1):70-92.

View all 7 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Political equality in justice as fairness.Harry Brighouse - 1997 - Philosophical Studies 86 (2):155-184.

Add more references