Justice survey

Think of this “checklist” as a kind of experiment in triggering your intuitions (the elephant) on “what a just society looks like”. You still need to develop reasons for the vision you come up with. It’s new for me, so I don’t know how successful it will be in teaching, but here it is:

A Checklist for imagining the just society.

Track your agreement with each of the items below. This might help think about how you imagine justice. Whether you find yourself agreeing with the items or not, try to use your reactions to tell yourself something about your image of justice. In some cases, you might agree with an item, but not see it as a matter of justice. For each item, assume you are referring to a wealthy society, like the United States.

A. Basic Formal Justice and Equality. These are likely to be in everyone’s list. In a just society,

…the constitution guarantees equal rights and protects the due process rights of all citizens.
…the administration of justice promotes non-discrimination and enforces all laws related to equal opportunity and non-discrimination.
…there are laws against discrimination.
…opportunities are based as much as possible on merit.

B. Material rights, Moral arbitrariness, and Social justice. Some of these items involve human rights, some involve morally arbitrary traits or conditions. In a just society,

…it should not be possible to work a full time job and become homeless.
…it should not be possible to work your whole life and retire to absolute poverty.
…kids always have enough to eat, a safe place to live, and appropriate care.
…the society has an interest and obligation for child welfare.
…the quality of a public primary and secondary education does not depend upon the class and wealth of the school's students.
…we agree to pay for the public education of others’ kids.
…post secondary educational opportunities are not limited by personal income or wealth.
…some bad outcomes, like those leading to disability and inability to work, are insured by the society.
…some bad outcomes, like natural disasters and failures of government, are insured by the society.
…old age poverty is prevented, possibly by a Social Security model.
…your “basic quality of life” should not be determined by arbitrary things like genetic lotteries and accidents.
…income and wealth inequalities can be a threat to social justice because they can weaken our commitments to each other. A just society is one in which people have stable and strong bonds.

C. Justice in a Free Society You may think of justice as serving a conception of a free society. A just society protects liberty. In a just society,

…our mandatory (e.g., through taxation) social obligations would be limited to formal justice (A above), common defense, public order and safety, and some practical matters, like infrastructure planning.
…the protection of liberty is seen as a form of social justice, because free people renounce coercion from government or each other.
…everyone is responsible for their own success or failure.
…your basic quality of life depends upon your own efforts, plus the voluntary charity of others.
…you are free to choose to help others achieve happiness or not. Justice is not necessarily about happiness.

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