Egalitarian liberalism
The egalitarian liberalism is a political ideology that was largely developed by John Rawls in his main work A Theory of Justice (1971) and in the text Political Liberalism and is based on the conviction that justice is primarily determined by the basic value of equality .
It seems impossible to find a consensus among all members of society on the definition of the term justice , since all people find themselves in different life situations, families and income groups.
The egalitarian liberalism recommends, therefore, to guarantee general basic values for everyone and to establish equality at least with regard to opportunities and to compensate inequalities that can be based on natural or social conditions through redistribution. According to Rawls, inequalities are only justified if they also serve the benefit of the worst-off in society.
For the egalitarian liberalist, freedom has the function of establishing the ideal of justice among equals, so it is not an end but a means. In contrast to this is libertarianism , for which freedom is an absolute value.
In addition to Rawls, Bruce Ackerman , Ronald Dworkin and Thomas Nagel as well as, in a broader view, the theories of justice by Jürgen Habermas and Amartya Sen are to be assigned to egalitarian liberalism .
See also
literature
- John Rawls: A Theory of Justice
- Eckhard Romanus: Social Justice, Responsibility and Dignity: The egalitarian liberalism after John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin , Alber, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3495482803