Economic Justice

About: Economic Justice is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 41600 publications have been published within this topic receiving 661535 citations.

Justice and the Aims of Political Philosophy

Abstract: In his two most recent publications, Rawls lays great stress on the relatively parochial nature of the proper aims of political philosophy and the suitable method for attaining them.' In general, "the aims of political philosophy depend on the society it addresses" (p. 1); in constitutional democracies one of the important long-term ends is attaining (or maintaining) stable social unity (p. 24). Perhaps the greatest obstacle to achieving this aim is our disagreement about how certain familiar values, such as freedom, equality, and efficiency, are to be understood, mutually accommodated, and realized in such a constitutional democracy; or more specifically, in the United States at this time.2 Rawls's own "justice as fairness" may be a solution to this problem provided it also satisfies a certain "practical" condition which he now considers essential for Western political philosophers to meet because "political philosophy must be concerned, as moral philosophy need not be, with practical political possibilities" (p. 24). Rawls now argues that the best way for political philosophers to attain stable social unity is to aim for a certain sort of agreement among citizens, which he calls "an overlapping consensus" and which is the minimum sufficient for stable social unity. Under such a consensus, a given .conception ofjustice is "affirmed by the opposing religious, philosophical, and moral doctrines likely to thrive over generations in a more or lessjust constitutional

The Recent Work of Jurgen Habermas: Reason, Justice and Modernity.

Abstract: Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction 1. Rationality, social theory and political philosophy 2. Action, rationality and normative discourse 3. Justice and the foundations of communicative ethics 4. Toward a minimal ethics and orientation for political theory 5. Communicative reason, modernity and contemporary capitalism 6. The two tasks of critical theory Notes Bibliography Index.

The Pursuit of Fairness: A History of Affirmative Action

Abstract: Affirmative action strikes at the heart of deeply held beliefs about employment and education, about the concepts of justice and fairness, and about the troubled history of race relations in America. Published on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, this is the only book available that gives readers a balanced, non-polemical, and lucid account of this highly contentious issue. Beginning with the roots of affirmative action, Anderson describes African-American demands for employment in the defense industry - spearheaded by A. Philip Randolph's threatened March on Washington in July 1941 - and the desegregation of the armed forces after World War II. He investigates President Kennedy's historic 1961 executive order that introduced the term "affirmative action" during the early years of the civil rights movement and he examines President Johnson's attempts to gain equal opportunities for African Americans. He describes President Nixon's expansion of affirmative action with the Philadelphia Plan - which the Supreme Court upheld - along with President Carter's introduction of "set asides" for minority businesses and the Bakke ruling which allowed the use of race as one factor in college admissions. By the early 1980s many citizens were becoming alarmed by affirmative action, and that feeling was exemplified by the Reagan administration's backlash, which resulted in the demise and revision of affirmative action during the Clinton years. He concludes with a look at the University of Michigan cases of 2003, the current status of the policy, and its impact. Throughout, the author weighs each side of every issue - often finding merit in both arguments - resulting in an eminently fair account of one of America's most heated debates. A colorful history that brings to life the politicians, legal minds, and ordinary people who have fought for or against affirmative action, "The Pursuit of Fairness" helps clear the air and calm the emotions, as it illuminates a difficult and critically important issue.