Political science · An Introduction To Political Theory 9th Edition O. P. Gauba
Chapter 19 : Concept of Justice
Table of contents34 sections
- 1.Concept of Justice
- 2.Idea of Justice
- 3.Sphere of Application
- 4.Philosophical Context
- 5.Justice as a Dynamic Idea
- 6.Key Terms
- 7.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 8.Relation Between Liberty, Equality and Justice
- 9.Key Terms
- 10.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 11.Classical Theories of Justice
- 12.Plato's Theory of Justice
- 13.Aristotle's Theory of Justice
- 14.Key Terms
- 15.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 16.Modern View of Justice
- 17.Key Terms
- 18.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 19.Dimensions of Justice
- 20.Legal Justice
- 21.Political Justice
- 22.Socio-Economic Justice
- 23.Key Terms
- 24.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 25.Procedural and Substantive Justice
- 26.Key Terms
- 27.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 28.Retributive and Distributive Justice
- 29.Retributive Justice
- 30.Distributive Justice
- 31.Conclusion and Synthesis
- 32.Key Terms
- 33.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 34.Quick-Recall Box
Chapter preview
Concept of Justice
Idea of Justice
Political thinkers have long sought to formulate the concept of justice. With the dawn of modern consciousness, influenced by democracy and socialism, the traditional view of justice has been transformed into the concept of social justice. In the contemporary world, justice is concerned with determining logical criteria for the allocation of goods, services, opportunities, benefits, power, honours, and obligations, particularly in a scarcity situation.
Sphere of Application
Justice is primarily a problem of moral philosophy, but because it must be implemented by a political order, it is also a problem of political philosophy. The quest for justice is not universally applicable to all systems.
| System Type | Relevance of Justice | Reason (Source-given) |
|---|---|---|
| Purely Authoritarian System | Not relevant | All allocation is dictated by an established authority; no scope to change allocation. |
| Purely Competitive System | Not relevant | All allocation is decided by the free play of market forces; no scope to apply new criteria. |
| Hypothetical Communist System | Not relevant | Allocation is "according to need" and there is no scarcity; injustice automatically disappears. |
| Open Society | Relevant | Exists in a situation of scarcity; allocation criteria can be openly discussed, altered, and demanded; faults are easily detected due to free flow of information. |
Philosophical Context
Justice is primarily concerned with discovering the 'right' course of action. The source distinguishes between two sets of value systems: 'good vs evil' and 'right vs wrong'.
| Feature | Good vs Bad / Evil | Right vs Wrong (Justice vs Injustice) |
|---|---|---|
| Nature of Categories | Relative; can be 'partly good' and 'partly bad'. Good is akin to useful, profitable, beneficial; bad/evil implies harmful, damaging, disadvantageous. | Absolute; mutually exclusive. |
| Relationship | Continuum: Variables fall between two opposites with free access from one extreme to another. | Dichotomy: Opposed in an absolute sense (like true vs false). Negative prevails over positive (if partly right, it must be wrong). |
| Difference Type | Quantitative (susceptible to measurement). | Qualitative. |
| Theoretical Linkage | Utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham). | Theory of Justice (John Rawls). |
- Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832): Founded the felicific calculus to balance quantities of pleasure and pain. His mainstream utilitarianism advanced a theory…
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