Abstract

This paper intends to illustrate, by focusing on a central element of Rawls´s strong egalitarian conception of justice, to wit, the design of the institutional frameworks of societies in line with what is required by justice as fairness, the following argument: that his radical theory of justice is still, and in fact even more so, relevant for our actual predicament. In sum, Rawls´s ideas on the equal moral worth of free and equal persons, on “morals and markets”, on empowerment and questions of access to the political process for each and every citizen, on “deliberative democracy", on “democratic citizenship”, on “the duty of public civility", on “civic friendship", on the basic shortcoming of utilitarianism, on political, social and economic inequalities, show us the choices to be made if we actually want to strive for a substantially more just society.

Keywords: justice, egalitarianism, fairness, democracy.