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The Society We Could Become: A Vision of Justice and Fairness
What would a truly fair society look like? This question has haunted philosophers, politicians, and everyday citizens throughout history. In 1971, a soft-spoken Harvard philosopher named John Rawls published "A Theory of Justice," a work that would revolutionize political philosophy and provide a powerful framework for answering this fundamental question. Though Rawls's academic influence has been immense-essentially reviving political philosophy from dormancy-his impact on real-world politics has been surprisingly limited. This disconnect is particularly unfortunate today, as liberal democracies face growing discontent, plummeting trust in institutions, and the rise of authoritarian populism. Rawls's vision offers a compelling alternative: a society that is both deeply egalitarian and fundamentally liberal, prioritizing both freedom and fairness. His ideas have found champions across the political spectrum, from Barack Obama (who awarded him the National Humanities Medal) to conservative philosopher Roger Scruton, who praised Rawls's "attempt to ground political order in a shared conception of justice." As we navigate today's polarized political landscape, Rawls's thoughtful approach to balancing competing values may be exactly what we need.
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Justice as Fairness: The Original Position
At the heart of Rawls's theory lies a brilliantly simple yet profound thought experiment: the "original position." Imagine you're designing a society but don't know what place you'll occupy within it-whether you'll be rich or poor, talented or struggling, male or female, a religious believer or atheist. Behind this "veil of ignorance," what principles would you choose to govern society's basic structure?
This scenario forces us to think impartially about justice, much like how a parent might have one child cut a cake and another choose the first piece. Without knowing our place in society, we'd want rules that are fair to everyone, not just advantageous to particular groups. We'd reject principles that might leave us vulnerable if we ended up in a disadvantaged position.
From this impartial perspective, Rawls argues we would choose two fundamental principles. First, we would guarantee equal basic liberties for all citizens-freedoms of conscience, expression, association, and political participation that couldn't be sacrificed even for economic gain. Second, we would permit social and economic inequalities only under two conditions: they must be attached to positions open to all under fair equality of opportunity, and they must work to benefit the least advantaged members of society (the "difference principle").
Why these principles? Because in the original position, we'd prioritize securing our fundamental freedoms regardless of who we turned out to be. We'd also recognize that while some inequality might create incentives that make everyone better off, extreme disparities would be rational to reject if we might end up at the bottom. We'd want a society where even the least advantaged could live dignified lives with genuine opportunities.
Consider how this differs from utilitarianism, which might sacrifice individual rights for greater overall happiness. Behind the veil of ignorance, would you risk ending up as a persecuted minority if it made the majority slightly happier? Or from libertarianism, which might allow unlimited economic inequality regardless of its effects on opportunity? Would you choose that system if you might be born into poverty with minimal chances to escape it?
The beauty of the original position is that it doesn't require us to be saints-it aligns self-interest with fairness. When we don't know our place in society, designing fair institutions becomes the rational choice. This approach has remarkable staying power precisely because it appeals to widely shared intuitions about fairness rather than controversial metaphysical claims.
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Beyond the Culture Wars: Finding Common Ground
Our political discourse today often feels hopelessly divided, particularly around cultural issues involving religion, sexuality, and free speech. These "culture wars" pit progressives advocating for equality against conservatives defending traditional values and religious freedom. But must we really choose between these competing values?
Rawls's approach offers a way beyond this impasse through what he called "political liberalism." Rather than imposing any single comprehensive moral or religious doctrine, political liberalism seeks principles that people with different fundamental beliefs could reasonably accept. It distinguishes between the political realm, where we need shared principles to govern our common life, and private spheres where diverse values can flourish.
Take the contentious issue of LGBTQ+ rights versus religious freedom. A Rawlsian approach would protect both the right of same-sex couples to equal treatment in public accommodations and the right of religious organizations to maintain their theological commitments in their internal affairs. Religious groups would retain freedom to determine their own membership and leadership according to their beliefs, but businesses open to the public would need to serve all customers equally.
This balanced approach reflects the distinction between our roles as citizens and as private individuals. When acting in the public sphere, we have duties of civic equality that may sometimes require setting aside personal convictions. Yet in our private associations and religious communities, we retain freedom to live according to our deepest beliefs.
Similarly, on free speech issues, Rawls would defend robust protections for expression while recognizing reasonable limits. Speech that directly incites imminent violence or harassment might be restricted, but offensive or controversial viewpoints would remain protected. The state could use its expressive power to promote values of equal citizenship without censoring opposing views.
What makes this approach powerful is its appeal to shared democratic values rather than contested moral frameworks. Most Americans, regardless of political affiliation, value both religious liberty and equal treatment. By focusing on how these values can be balanced rather than treating them as absolute, we can find workable compromises that respect diverse perspectives.
Consider how this differs from both progressive absolutism (which might dismiss religious concerns as mere bigotry) and conservative absolutism (which might reject any accommodation of LGBTQ+ equality). The Rawlsian middle path acknowledges legitimate interests on both sides while seeking fair terms of social cooperation.
This doesn't mean abandoning moral convictions-rather, it means recognizing that in a diverse society, political principles must be justifiable to people with different comprehensive views. We can still advocate for our deeper moral beliefs while accepting that the state should remain neutral between reasonable conceptions of the good life.
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Democracy Renewed: Beyond Electoral Politics
Democracy today faces a profound crisis of legitimacy. Despite widespread theoretical support for democratic governance, satisfaction with actually existing democracies has plummeted across wealthy nations. Citizens increasingly feel that elections don't meaningfully change their lives, that wealthy interests dominate policy decisions, and that their voices don't matter.
This democratic deficit isn't just perception-it's reality. Research consistently shows that government policy aligns much more closely with the preferences of wealthy citizens than with those of middle or lower-income groups. In the United States, when the preferences of economic elites and average citizens diverge, policy outcomes strongly favor the wealthy. Similar patterns exist across other affluent democracies.
Why does this matter? Because political equality is the core principle of democracy-the idea that all citizens should have roughly equal opportunities to influence collective decisions. When wealth translates directly into political power, this fundamental principle is violated.
Rawls's framework helps us understand both why this situation is unjust and how we might address it. His first principle guarantees not just formal political rights but their "fair value"-ensuring that citizens of similar talent and motivation have roughly equal chances to influence politics regardless of economic class. This requires preventing wealth from determining political outcomes.
How might we restore the fair value of political liberties? First, we need electoral systems that accurately translate citizen preferences into representation. Proportional representation systems, used in most European democracies, create legislatures that better reflect the full spectrum of political views compared to winner-take-all systems like those in the US and UK. They eliminate the problem of "safe seats" where many voters effectively have no meaningful electoral choice.
Second, we must address the outsized influence of money in politics. Private campaign financing creates fundamental inequalities in political voice. While Belgium caps individual donations at 500 annually, the US allows $30,000, and the UK has no limit whatsoever. The result is extreme concentration of political giving-in the 2012 US federal elections, just 0.01% of Americans contributed nearly half the money.
Democracy vouchers offer a promising alternative. Under this system, each citizen receives an annual allowance (say $50) to contribute to political parties or candidates of their choice. Seattle has successfully implemented such a program, increasing donor participation by 350% and improving electoral competitiveness. This approach would transform political fundraising from courting wealthy donors to engaging ordinary citizens.
Beyond elections, we should expand direct citizen participation through mechanisms like participatory budgeting and randomly selected citizens' assemblies. Porto Alegre, Brazil pioneered participatory budgeting, where citizens meet in neighborhood assemblies to determine spending priorities. This model has spread to over 11,000 programs across 71 countries, shifting resources toward disadvantaged communities while maintaining high-quality services.
Citizens' assemblies-randomly selected groups that deliberate on specific issues with expert guidance-have shown remarkable success in Ireland, where they helped shift public opinion toward legalizing same-sex marriage and abortion. These assemblies demonstrate that ordinary citizens, given time and information, can thoughtfully address complex policy questions.
These democratic innovations aren't merely theoretical-they're being successfully implemented around the world. Together, they could transform our political systems from formal democracies dominated by wealth into genuine democracies where all citizens have meaningful voice.
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Equal Opportunities: Breaking the Cycle of Advantage
Most people support the idea of equal opportunity-the notion that everyone should have a fair chance to succeed based on their talents and efforts rather than their background. Yet in practice, our societies fall dramatically short of this ideal. Children born to wealthy, educated parents enjoy enormous advantages over those born into poverty, creating persistent patterns where privilege and disadvantage are inherited across generations.
This inheritance of opportunity is starkly visible in intergenerational mobility data. In the UK and US, about 50% of earnings advantage passes from fathers to sons-if your father earned $10,000 more than your friend's father, you'll likely earn about $5,000 more than your friend. This relationship is particularly strong at the extremes-over 40% of children born into the top income quintile remain there as adults, while fewer than 10% fall to the bottom. Conversely, only about 7-9% of those born into the bottom quintile reach the top.
These patterns aren't inevitable. Nordic countries like Denmark and Finland show much higher mobility, with only about 15-20% of earnings advantage passing between generations. This demonstrates that policy choices significantly affect opportunity structures.
What would it take to create genuine equality of opportunity? Rawls's principle of "fair equality of opportunity" provides guidance. It requires not just removing formal barriers like discrimination but ensuring everyone has similar prospects for success regardless of social background.
This begins with early childhood, where developmental gaps between rich and poor children emerge before school entry. By age five, children from poor families in the UK and US are 19-22 months behind their wealthy peers in school readiness. High-quality early childhood education can significantly narrow these gaps. The Perry Preschool Project, which provided intensive preschool to disadvantaged children, produced lasting benefits including higher earnings, lower crime rates, and better health outcomes decades later.
Yet public spending on early education remains much lower than for schools and universities. Countries like Denmark, with universal access and targeted subsidies, spend about 1.3% of GDP on early education-nearly double the OECD average and four times what the US spends.
Beyond early education, we must address educational inequalities throughout childhood. Private schools create structural barriers to equal opportunity-in the UK, private school graduates earn 41% more by their early thirties and dominate elite professions. Finland demonstrates an alternative approach where fee-paying schools are prohibited, creating a more equitable system with excellent outcomes for all students.
Within public systems, funding formulas should direct substantially more resources to disadvantaged students-potentially 25-100% more per pupil. Evidence shows certain approaches better support disadvantaged children: avoiding early academic selection, promoting socioeconomic integration in schools, providing one-to-one tutoring, and ensuring quality teachers work in challenging schools.
Higher education presents another opportunity gap. University graduates earn significantly more (50% more across OECD countries) and enjoy greater job autonomy. Yet access remains deeply unequal-in the UK, students from the richest 20% are six times more likely to attend selective universities than those from the poorest 20%. At America's elite universities, there are more students from the top 1% of families than from the entire bottom 50%.
Income-contingent loan systems, where graduates repay costs only when earning above certain thresholds, can help address financial barriers. But true equality requires comprehensive support covering living expenses and extending to vocational paths as well.
Addressing racial and gender disparities requires additional targeted efforts. Despite formal legal equality, significant racial economic disparities persist-in America, median Black household wealth ($16,000) is just 12% of the typical white household's ($140,000). Gender pay gaps remain substantial across all countries, with women earning about 25% less than men across OECD countries.
These disparities reflect both current discrimination and historical injustice. CV studies consistently show applicants with traditionally Black names need to send significantly more applications to receive callbacks. Women face discrimination particularly when they have children, with the gender wage gap increasing from 10% to 33% twelve years after having children.
Creating genuine equality of opportunity requires a comprehensive approach: universal early education, equitable school funding, affordable higher education, strong anti-discrimination enforcement, and policies addressing the gendered division of household labor. These investments would not only make our societies fairer but would enhance overall economic productivity by developing everyone's talents.
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Shared Prosperity: Reimagining the Economy
While equality of opportunity is essential, it's not sufficient for a just society. Even with perfect educational opportunities, market economies naturally produce substantial inequalities in outcomes. The question isn't whether inequality will exist, but what kind and how much inequality is justified.
Rawls's difference principle provides guidance: social and economic inequalities are justified only if they benefit everyone, especially the least advantaged. This principle recognizes that some inequality creates incentives that can drive economic dynamism-higher doctor salaries ensure enough people endure medical training, wage differences direct workers to high-demand sectors, and profit potential spurs innovation. A perfectly equal society would lack these incentives and be poorer overall.
But why focus on the least advantaged? Because they have the strongest reason to object to society's arrangement. In a society following the difference principle, the poorest would know their position couldn't be better under any alternative system-they're owed reciprocity as a matter of justice, not charity.
Importantly, the difference principle concerns more than just income and wealth. It addresses the distribution of three vital "primary goods": income and wealth, economic power and control, and opportunities for self-respect. This broader perspective reveals the limitations of redistribution alone. Being unemployed and dependent on welfare can undermine agency, especially given intrusive assessment systems and social stigma. Meaningful work provides not just income but purpose and dignity.
Before addressing shared prosperity, we must transition to a truly sustainable economy. Justice extends to future generations, and our most fundamental duty is preserving the stable climate, diverse ecosystems, and vital resources that sustain life. Currently, we're failing spectacularly to live within ecological limits. Global temperatures have already risen over 1C above pre-industrial levels and are on track to reach nearly 3C-risking irreversible catastrophic breakdown.
A sustainable economy requires an overarching legal framework defining natural boundaries within which society must operate. The UK's Climate Change Act provides one model, requiring emissions reductions with five-year "carbon budgets" overseen by an independent committee. A more comprehensive "Sustainable Economy Act" could extend beyond climate to biodiversity, pollution, and resource exploitation.
Within ecological limits, how should we organize our economy? While markets are essential for efficiency and freedom, they require careful regulation to address externalities, provide public goods, and ensure fair competition. The fundamental challenge isn't choosing between pure market capitalism and state planning, but finding the optimal balance that promotes both efficiency and justice.
A Universal Basic Income (UBI) would transform how we meet basic needs by providing regular cash payments to every citizen regardless of wealth and without work requirements. This would eliminate the stigma, complexity, and intrusive means-testing of current welfare systems while preserving recipients' dignity and autonomy. Research shows UBI experiments have minimal impact on work participation while improving health, education, parenting, and reducing crime.
Beyond meeting basic needs, we must address the distribution of wealth, which is even more unequal than income. The wealthiest 10% own 61% of all personal wealth in Europe and 71% in America, while the poorest 50% possess just 3% and 1.5% respectively.
A "universal minimum inheritance"-a substantial one-time wealth transfer to every citizen upon reaching adulthood, funded by taxes on large inheritances and wealth-could fundamentally alter wealth distribution. Thomas Piketty has proposed an inheritance equal to 60% of average adult wealth (about 120,000 in Western Europe), enabling large investments like starting businesses or buying homes.
Alternatively, a "citizens' wealth fund" owned by and managed for the entire population could create a more equal wealth distribution. Funded by progressive wealth taxes, the state would purchase shares in private companies and other assets, generating income paid directly to citizens as an annual "citizens' dividend." Norway's sovereign wealth fund, valued at nearly $1.4 trillion in 2021, and Alaska's Permanent Fund, which distributes about $1,500 annually to each resident, demonstrate the viability of this approach.
Implementing these ambitious proposals would require higher taxes-likely in the range of 45-50% of national income. While this represents a significant increase from current levels (the OECD average is about 34%), several European countries already collect more than 40% in taxes, with France and Denmark exceeding 45% of GDP. Evidence contradicts claims that higher taxes harm economic growth-countries with significantly higher tax rates than America have experienced similar growth rates.
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Workplace Democracy: Dignity and Voice at Work
The shareholder primacy model-where companies are controlled by owners rather than employees-is so entrenched we rarely question it. This system creates a profound democratic deficit in the workplace, with serious consequences for worker well-being. Fewer than half of employees in Europe and America say they're consulted about important decisions affecting their work, and many want more influence.
This powerlessness leads to chronic anxiety, stress, and sometimes outright abuse. One-third of UK employees report being afraid at work, while one in five American workers report recent instances of verbal abuse, humiliation, or harassment. The problem extends beyond material conditions to a crisis of dignity and meaning tied to changing work patterns, from industrial decline to the gig economy and increasing workplace surveillance.
Rawls's difference principle offers a liberal solution-recognizing that workplace hierarchies can be justified only if they benefit the least advantaged. This requires reinventing company structures so workers have legal rights to participate in decision-making. Meaningful work is crucial for self-respect, with studies showing "occupation and career" ranks second only to family in what gives people a sense of meaning.
Co-management originated in post-WWI Germany and spread throughout Europe, with two key components. First, workers elect representatives to company boards-in Germany, employees elect one-third of board members in companies with over 500 workers and half in those with over 2,000. Second, works councils give employees influence at the day-to-day level with legal powers regarding working conditions and workforce composition.
Research shows co-managed companies offer better job security, more family-friendly policies, improved job quality, less outsourcing, and reduced wage inequality. Despite theoretical concerns about reduced productivity, studies find co-management has either neutral or positive effects on company performance, with rigorous research showing increased investment and productivity without harming profitability.
Worker cooperatives take workplace democracy further by replacing shareholders with workers entirely. Power and control are shared equally on a one-worker-one-vote basis. Unlike shareholder-owned companies focused primarily on profits, cooperatives define success more broadly-encompassing decent wages, meaningful work, personal development, and socially purposeful products. They consistently provide greater job security, more equal wages, greater autonomy, better training, increased job satisfaction, and lower turnover.
Spain's Mondragon group exemplifies the potential of cooperatives. Founded in 1954, it comprises ninety-five cooperatives employing 80,000 people across diverse sectors including banking, retail, education, and manufacturing. Despite these successes, cooperatives remain rare globally-accounting for just 0.3% of UK employment and employing only 7,000 Americans in 300-400 fully democratic workplaces.
This rarity stems not from performance issues but from startup challenges. The primary obstacle is financing-workers rarely have sufficient capital, and cooperatives struggle to secure external funding since they can't offer voting rights to investors. A dedicated cooperative investment bank, funded through private and public capital, could proactively monitor and support cooperatives.
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Building a Society Worth Fighting For
Throughout history, utopian visions have driven progress, transforming once-radical ideas like universal suffrage and welfare states into everyday realities. At our current democratic crossroads, we desperately need such bold thinking to counter the cynicism fueling authoritarian populism.
Rawls's framework offers both a critique of existing institutions and an inspiring vision for improvement. His basic liberties principle can guide us through culture wars while strengthening democracy through proportional representation, campaign finance reform, and participatory mechanisms. Meanwhile, his principles of fair opportunity, difference, and just savings provide a roadmap for transforming capitalism itself.
This transformation must begin with addressing the climate emergency through legal frameworks that enforce ecological limits. Simultaneously, we must pursue economic justice through educational reform, tackling racial and gender inequalities, implementing universal basic income, empowering workers, establishing citizens' wealth funds, and democratizing workplaces.
This "realistic utopia" requires no speculative technology or changed human nature-just feasible reforms approached with experimental openness rather than dogmatism. While realistic in practicality, this vision is utopian in ambition, requiring a broad political movement capable of fundamentally changing our institutions to create a truly fair society.
Seizing this opportunity requires moral leadership that's been missing in recent years. Progressive parties must move beyond tactical triangulation and polling-driven politics to articulate clear values and a coherent vision. By putting Rawls's universal moral framework at the center, parties can bridge social divides while addressing economic concerns of neglected voters.
This isn't abstract idealism-it's connecting values to everyday realities like religious freedom, education, and workplace dignity. Politicians alone won't deliver this agenda; we must demand change through voting, joining parties, protesting, and building social movements. Though liberal democracy's survival isn't guaranteed, this uncertainty reminds us we have the power to shape our world and build a society where we are, at last, truly free and equal.
