Social Justice in an Open World: The Role of the United Nations
There are elements other than social mobility, social cohesion and economic growth that might also be counted among the basic principles underlying the organization of society; these principles have a close, if complicated, relationship with justice, which is itself an important (and perhaps even the most important) principle. In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls offers the following observations with regard to the relationship between the principles of stability, efficiency, coordination and justice: "In the absence of a certain measure of agreement on what is just and unjust, it is clearly more difficult for individuals to coordinate their plans efficiently in order to insure that mutually beneficial arrangements are maintained. Distrust and resentment corrode the ties of civility, and suspicion and hostility tempt men to act in ways they would otherwise avoid. So while the distinctive role of conceptions of justice is to specify rights and duties and to determine the appropriate distributive shares, the way in which a conception does this is bound to affect the problems of efficiency, coordination and stability. "37 It is true, as frequently noted by those reasonably satisfied with their place in society and with the position of their countries in the international pecking order, that intellectuals throughout history and from all cultures have always detected and deplored signs of distrust, resentment, corrosion of the ties of civility, and other societal weaknesses and failures. It is also true, however, that the price paid for not heeding Cassandra's call can be extremely high. The intention of Rawls was above all to establish a solid philosophical foundation for the pursuit of social justice. Can such a need be seriously denied in today's world? In the same work, Rawls identifies two "principles of justice" that should "apply to the basic structure of society and govern the assignments of rights and duties and regulate the distribution of social and economic advantages". First, "each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all"; second, "social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, consistent with the just savings principle, and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity" .38 Liberal and social democracies are built upon such principles, though the relative emphasis placed on the second principle varies widely, and the nature of the critical link between the two principles is perceived differently in individual contexts. Principles of justice are the theoretical foundations of society; they are ideals that are never completely or everlastingly achieved but must nonetheless be pursued by Governments and citizens. Over the past couple of decades there has been a regression in the application of various aspects of these two principles; in particular, little has been done to ensure the proper "arrangement" of social and economic inequalities.