Egalitarian Liberalism: Justice in the Modern State

1. Egalitarian Liberalism: Justice in the Modern State John Rawls Dr. Schmid, Ph.D. Philosophy and Religion, UNCW

2. Ethics and Politics • Utilitarian = “greatest good for greatest number” • how to reconcile different concepts of happiness? • Kantian = “universal law” “treat persons as ends” • Protects freedom, dignity • Aristotle = objective structure to a good life • recommends specific social and religious order • Utilitarian principle might  violate ind’l rights • Liberalism: Individualism + Social Contract  • Libertarian liberalism: freedom  great inequality • Lockean model: ? re: limits of democratic legitimacy • Equal opportunity liberalism: Rawls • Communitarianism: does this  violate ind’l rights?

3. Social Contract and Rational Consent • Individual is, in some sense, prior to the state • Social contract, giving up some goods/rights in exchange for others • Q’s about rights • Alienable? • Defined by majority? • Q’s about contracts • Coercive? • Lack of information? • What kind of contract would not be tainted? • Rawls: one in which • There was no coercion, because everyone had the same amount of power • Everyone had equal knowledge • This is not possible in real life: we are born into different levels of wealth, power, talent

4. Concept of the “original position” • Our present standpoint prejudices our conception of justice • To discover the true principles of justice, we must imagine: • We make a social contract • We have general knowledge about human beings and their interests • We don’t know our own situation in relation to gender, race, natural ability, social situation • What principles of justice would we choose in the “original position”?

5. Two Principles of Liberal Justice • Liberty: • rights to life, liberty, freedom of speech and thought, religion, assembly, etc. • Distributive: • Rights of property, free market, tempered by distribution that maximizes position of least well off (maxi/min) • Equal opportunity

6. Maximin Concept Rational choice theory Possible Outcomes • Maximin is regarded by some theorists as a basic principle of rational choice • In Maximin, where you are chosing blindly among alternative options, you must choose the option which gives you the least undesirable outcome.

7. Rawls’s argument • If we did not know our actual interests, we would ‘universalize’ unselfishly what justice demands  Original position concept of social contract • But everyone would want political liberty, because no one would want to be enslaved or ruled by others  Liberty Principle • Also, everyone would want an economic system that would guarantee opportunity and produce prosperity (free market and competitive self-interest promotes that), but no one would want to be left behind  Distributive Principles • Everyone would want liberty first, for reasons of self-respect as well as power; everyone would want equal opportunity in economic life  Lexical order

8. If you did not have your “lottery card,” where would you want to be born?

9. Looking now at your “lottery card,” where would you want to be born?

10. Concepts of Equal Opportunity

11. Many functions of government in liberal state: • Paternalist: social security; health insurance laws; seat belts & motocycle helmets • Redistribution: unemployment insurance; welfare; collective goods (parks, transportation); public ed; retirement; etc. • Morals: “moral pluralism” often blurred by distinction of personal liberty v. economic life (e.g. private sexual or harmful behavior vs. prostitution, tax on smoking )

12. Inheritance Tax?Libertarian vs. Liberal • Individuals have earned the $, have the right to transfer it as they wish • Inheritance tax steals money from rightful owners (parents) • Consequent inequality of opportunity for children = part of parent’s just reward for earning wealth • Reject all redistribution • U args: liberalism undercuts prosperity as well as freedom • Vast inequality of opportunity even in Lockean state • Individuals’ (child’s) advantages = luck in the ‘birth-lottery’ • Market does not reward according to ‘merit’ or ‘work’ • Society is fair in supporting LEO • Doesn’t  ever > inequality • People have a “fair start” • Some redistribution is just • U args: libertarianism undercuts prosperity/merit as well as allows unfairness of opportunity

13. Proposal #1: North Carolina Fair Educational Opportunity Act • No public support for private schools • Increase tax rate on highest level 7% to 10% • Funding to create “NCFEO” merit scholarships to pay all expenses for NC universities, including tuition, books and basic living expenses

14. Proposal #2: North Carolina Disabilities Opportunity Act • DD persons = significant mental or physical disabilities which not due to their own actions • Increase tax rate on highest level 7% to 10% • Create greater opportunities in • Jobs: tax deduction for hiring for non-replacement, ‘disability-disadvantaged’ positions • Education/communication: DD persons provided relevant services in education and communication • Physical access: all public and corporate building

15. Using your“lottery card,” where would you want to live?

16. If you did not have your “lottery card,” would you prefer C or D?

17. Objections to Rawlsian Liberalism Libertarians: • reject Distributive Principle • reject liberal policies to “make real” equal political rights • public financing of elections, prohibition of corporate political donations, public defenders; etc. Communitarians (Sandel): different set of arguments • Critique of liberal concept of self, state • Priority of conceptions of the good life over conceptions of justice (good over right), vs. liberal ideal of priority of right over good

18. Liberal vs. Communitarian • Concept of the Self • Autonomous individual • Self-respect • Concept of the State • Priority of the right • Protects formal justice • Protects material justice (EO) • Neutrality re: the good • State neutrality” toward morals, religion, etc. • Wants “public discourse” to presuppose moral pluralism • Concept of the Self • “Situated self” Families, cultural groups, gender, religion • ‘Absolute commitments’ • Concept of the State • Politics re: the good as well as the right • Examples: • Minority cultures & liberal values (e.g. the veil) • Abortion, euthanasia • Gay rights & family values

19. Communitarian argument • The liberal concept of the social contract ignores the social realities of human life. We are not ‘isolated individuals.’ We live as already committed selves, part of human communities.  Concepts of “Situated Self” and “Living social institutions” • These institutions include marriage, family, and religion. We human beings find our good/fulfillment in them, and live diminished lives without them. But they exist to further human procreation, interpersonal love, and human spiritual fulfillment. It is right and proper for human government to protect and nurture them, as good in themselves and as vehicles of good for human persons.  “Communitarian concept of justice = based on human good” • Thus ‘natural law’ says justice implies not only political rights, but also Marriage, the Family and Religion, as essential components of a good society. Nature  these institutions for a good life.

20. Religion, identity, liberty: the veil • In France, there are concerns about the values of Islamic immigrants and French liberal culture • Should French law defend the rights of Muslim women, often suppressed, forbidding the veil in schools? • Or the veil an expression of religious liberty, that should be protected?

21. Religion, abortion, and politics • Liberal Argument: • If it all depends on when ‘personhood’ begins • And there is no objective non-religious answer to that (viability vs. conception) • Then the state should be neutral and abortion should be a personal choice • Communitarian reply • Isn’t this good (life) so basic the voters must decide if abortion is evil and wrong?