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Social justice is both a Philosophical problem and an important issue in Politics and economics such as Binary Economics . It can be argued that everyone wishes to live in a just society, but different political Ideologies have different conceptions of what a 'just society' actually is. The term "social justice" itself tends to be used by those ideologies who believe that present day society is highly unjust - and these are usually Left-wing ideologies, advocating a more extensive use of Income Redistribution , a more Egalitarian society. The Right-wing has its own conception of social justice, but generally believes that it is best achieved through the operation of a Free Market , and the promotion of Philanthropy and Charity . Both right and left tend to agree on the importance of Rule Of Law , Human Rights , and some form of a Welfare Safety Net (though the left supports this latter element to a greater extent (e.g. to provide for capable individuals in society) than the right). Social Justice features as an apolitical philosophical concept (insofar as any philosophical analysis of politics can be free from bias) in much of John Rawls' writing. It is fundamental to Catholic Social Teaching , and is one of the Four Pillars Of The Green Party upheld by the Worldwide Green Parties . Some of the tenets of social justice, sometimes renamed civil justice, have been adopted by those who lie on the left or center-left of the political spectrum (e.g. Socialists , Social Democrats , etc). Social justice is also a concept that some use to describe the movement towards a socially just world. In this context, social justice is based on the concepts of Human Rights and Equality . RAWLS The political philosopher John Rawls (1921-2002) draws on the utilitarian insights of Bentham and Mill, the social contract ideas of Locke, and the categorical imperative ideas of Kant. His first statement of principle was made in ''A Theory of Justice'' (1971) where he proposed that, "Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others." (at p3). A Deontological proposition that echoes Kant in framing the moral good of justice in Absolutist terms. His views are definitively restated in ''Political Liberalism'' (1993), where society is seen, "as a fair system of co-operation over time, from one generation to the next." (at p14). All societies have a basic structure of social, economic, and political institutions, both formal and informal. In testing how well these elements fit and work together, Rawls based a key test of Legitimacy on the theories of Social Contract . To determine whether any particular system of collectively enforced social arrangements is Legitimate , he argued that one must look for agreement by the people who are subject to it. Obviously, not every citizen can be asked to participate in a poll to determine his or her consent to every proposal in which some degree of coercion is involved, so we have to assume that all citizens are Reasonable . Rawls constructed an argument for a two-stage process to determine a citizen's hypothetical agreement:
This applies to one person representing a small group (e.g. to the organiser of a social event setting a dress code) as equally as it does to national Government s which are the ultimate trustees, holding representative powers for the benefit of all citizens within their territorial boundaries, and if those governments fail to provide for the Welfare of their citizens according to the principles of justice, they are not legitimate. To emphasise the general principle that justice should rise from the people and not be dictated by the law-making powers of governments, Rawls asserted that, "There is . . . a general presumption against imposing legal and other restrictions on conduct without sufficient reason. But this presumption creates no special priority for any particular liberty." (at pp291-292) This is support for an unranked set of liberties that reasonable citizens in all states should respect and uphold — to some extent, the list proposed by Rawls matches the normative Human Rights that have international recognition and direct enforcement in some nation states where the citizens need encouragement to act in a more objectively just way. The basic liberties according to Rawls
CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING See Also: Catholic social teaching Catholic social teaching comprises those aspects of Catholic doctrine which relate to matters dealing with the collective aspect of humanity. A distinctive feature of Catholic social teaching is its concern for the poorest Catholic members of society. Two of the seven key areashttp://www.usccb.org/sdwp/projects/socialteaching/excerpt.htm of Catholic social teaching are pertinent to social justice:
Even before it was propounded in the Catholic social teachings, Social Justice appeared regularly in the history of the Catholic church:
THE GREEN PARTY Social Justice is one of the Four Pillars Of The Green Party . Social Justice (sometimes "Social and Global Equality and Economic Justice") reflects the general rejection of discrimination based on distinctions between class, gender, ethnicity, or culture. Green Parties are almost universally egalitarian in their outlook, seeing that great disparities in wealth or influence are caused by the perversion of or total lack of social institutions that prevent the strong from plundering the weak.http://www.greenparty.ca/en/about_us/green_values/social_justice Several local branches of the Worldwide Green Parties define social justice as the principle that all persons are entitled to "basic human needs", regardless of "superficial differences such as economic disparity, class, gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, or health". This includes "the eradication of poverty and illiteracy, the establishment of sound environmental policy, and equality of opportunity for healthy personal and social development." SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS There are a number of to access the benefits of their society. OTHER USES ''Social Justice'' was also the name of a periodical published by Father Coughlin in the 1930s and early 1940s . Coughlin's organization was known as the National Union For Social Justice and he frequently used the term social justice in his radio broadcasts. In 1935 Coughlin made a series of broadcasts in which he outlined what he termed "the Christian principles of social justice" as an alternative to both Capitalism and Communism . Coughlin's views, which centered around monetary reform, have had no notable influence on those using the phrase "social justice" today, many of whom consider Coughlin's views to have been Anti-Semitic . CRITICISM Criticism of the idea that there is an objective standard of social justice has come from several circles. First, there are Moral Relativists (such as the Sophists ), who do not believe that there is any kind of objective standard for justice in general. Second, there are Cynics (such as Niccolò Machiavelli ) who believe that any ideal of social justice is ultimately a mere justification for the Status Quo . Third, there are Libertarians who believe that social justice violates the Non-aggression Principle . Additionally, Postmodernism has also developed its own critique of the concept of social justice. The most complete rejection of the concept of social justice comes from the Friedrich Hayek of the Austrian School of economics: "The phrase 'social justice' is ... simply 'a semantic fraud from the same stable as People's Democracy'.""The Fatal Conceit - The Errors of Socialism", 1988, University of Chicago Press, quoting Charles Curran. Many other people accept some of the basic results of social justice, such as the idea that all human beings have a basic level of value but disagree with the elaborate conclusions that may or may not follow from this. (For example the statement by H.G. Wells above that all people are "equally entitled to the respect of their fellow-men.") Finally, social justice may be unfeasible economically. Many water-poor countries have recognized a "basic right to have drinking water" and then provided that access accordingly. This often resulted in water sources being over used and then decimated. See UNHD 2006 Report on Water Scarcity and Justice, available at http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/pdfs/report/HDR06-complete.pdf SEE ALSO
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