A Theory of Justice Fifty Years Later

Abstract

John Rawls's A Theory of Justice has reshaped liberal political theory, but what fruitful arguments does it generate today, fifty years after its publication? To show Theory's productive contemporary lives, I outline its key concepts and commitments, focusing on Rawls’ goal to uncover a consensus among reasonable persons. I highlight arguments in global justice and animal rights in which Theory's concept of the basic structure was fruitfully employed. Moreover, I argue that Rawls envisioned consensus as agreement only on very broad terms. Perhaps more than he realized, he left it to citizens to deal with everyday questions about justice, in which identities and power are central. I suggest that to extend Theory to such questions, theorists can combine its central values, such as those of self-respect and autonomy, with independent conceptions of power, so long as these treat arguments as irreducible to power relations.