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JUSTICE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
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Social and Political Philosophy

Feb 24, 2016

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Social and Political Philosophy. Justice. Opening Discussion. What is justice? How do we enforce justice? How do we evaluate “ equality ” as a component of justice? How far should the just state go (or not) in promoting equality in society?. Video. It’s not just about the chicken…. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Page 1: Social and Political Philosophy

J U S T I C E

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Page 2: Social and Political Philosophy

OPENING DISCUSSION

• What is justice?• How do we enforce justice?• How do we evaluate “equality” as a component of

justice? How far should the just state go (or not) in promoting equality in society?

Page 3: Social and Political Philosophy

VIDEO

• It’s not just about the chicken….

Page 4: Social and Political Philosophy

INDIVIDUALISM VS. COLLECTIVISM

• Individualism – emphasizes the importance of individual rights. Similar to liberalism

• Communitarianism – rights of communities and societies are sometimes more important than individual rights

Page 5: Social and Political Philosophy

HOW DO GOVERNMENTS ENSURE JUSTICE?

• Concept of justice difficult to define• Law

• Naturalists – law is devised from universal command to do right over wrong

• Legal Positivists – law is only identified by reference to factual information, legal precedents and legislation

• Concept of justice goes beyond extent of the law

Page 6: Social and Political Philosophy

ACTIVITY

• Penny game

• 4 volunteers

Page 7: Social and Political Philosophy

DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE

Page 8: Social and Political Philosophy

DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE• How does a just state distribute both its burdens

and its benefits across society• Are the annual salaries of the following is an

arrangement of a just society:• Peyton Manning ($14.17 million, or just under

$900,000 per game). • A line cook in Mississippi making minimum wage

($13,624). • John Rawls and Robert Nozick offer two very

different but compelling answers to these questions of distribute justice.

Page 9: Social and Political Philosophy

JOHN RAWLS (1921-2002)• What is justice, how do we

arrive at it, and how do we structure our society in a just way?

• How do we decide between which inequalities are acceptable and which are unacceptable.

Page 10: Social and Political Philosophy

RAWLS AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE

• Dilemma - citizens operate from a biased position given their different backgrounds, worldviews, and self-interest based on their (known) position in society.,

• Agreements in the form of a mutual “social contract” are difficult to arrive at.

• Even if such agreements can be made, the process may not be a fair one because it is difficult to avoid one group dominating others.

Page 11: Social and Political Philosophy

RAWLS AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE• This is Rawls’ argument for justice as fairness: not

that justice IS fairness, per se, but the process through which we collectively arrive at our conception of justice is fair because we all operate from the original position of equality, and our ignorance to our respective positions provides a fair playing field from which we can come to a mutual conception of a justly arranged society.

Page 12: Social and Political Philosophy

READING – THE VEIL OF IGNORANCE

• Getting our fair share of the pie

Page 13: Social and Political Philosophy

RAWLS AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE• From the original position, members of a

society can develop an “overlapping consensus,” through which they can agree on a shared political and societal structure.

• Two essential principles of justice:• 1.) Everyone in society receives fundamental and

equal political rights and liberties.• 2.) Inequalities in society are acceptable, but must

be open to all to overcome (mobility and opportunity) and be structured in a way that is of the greatest benefit to the least advantaged (the maximin principle.)

Page 14: Social and Political Philosophy

ROBERT NOZICK (1938-2002)

• Nozick’s concept of justice goes to the purpose of the state (why we grant our tacit agreement with the social contract in the first place), which is to protect our rights.

• Therefore, the state is unjust when it violates our rights. What, then, are our rights?

Page 15: Social and Political Philosophy

NOZICK AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE

• View of wealth is important to his concept of distributive justice

• Wealth isn’t unattached, waiting to be distributed.

• Rather, wealth has attachment to individuals, who have just claims to their wealth. Wealth is (naturally) redistributed in society but redistribution is based on liberty

Page 16: Social and Political Philosophy

NOZICK AND WILT CHAMBERLAIN• Thought experiment: Imagine that all wealth in

society is distributed according to our ideal pattern, possibly where all are given an equal share.

• Wilt Chamberlain is signed to a contract where he is paid 25 cents for each ticket bought; and fans (who know about this arrangement) drop an extra 25 cents into a separate “Wilt bucket” upon admission to see him play. At the end of the season, he has made $250,000, upsetting the original pattern of equality.

• Is this just? Because the starting point was just, and all later steps were voluntarily made, how is this unjust?

Page 17: Social and Political Philosophy

LIBERTY VS. PATTERNS OF WEALTH• For Nozick, then, the question of distributive

justice boils down to a value choice between liberty and patterns. If we accept his overarching (classical liberalism) view of the state—that it exists to protect our rights and liberties—then we must put aside desired patterns of redistribution in favor of the first duty of the state to protect our rights.

Page 18: Social and Political Philosophy

NOZICK AND TAXES• Taxation for redistributive purposes is akin to

forced labor, as time is money, and we should think of the government taking x amount of our income means they we are also working x amount of hours per week for the sole benefit of others

• Such a system makes the state a “part-time” owner of its citizens

• Advocated for minimal state – only purpose is to equally protect rights of its citizens… anything beyond this begins to violate rather than protect rights

Page 19: Social and Political Philosophy

NOZICK AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE• The consequences of such a redistributive

system are not just an infringement of our rights, but also a loss of our ability to freely pursue our place in society.

• The redistributive state treats us not as “inviolate individuals,” but instead uses us “in certain ways by others as means or tools instruments our resources,”

• The minimal state, “by respecting our rights… allows us, individually or with whom we choose, to choose our life and to realize our ends and our conception of ourselves… How dare any state or group of individuals do more. Or less” (Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, 333-334.)

Page 20: Social and Political Philosophy

JUSTICE AS REPRESENTATION AND RECOGNITION

Page 21: Social and Political Philosophy

POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION

• Political representation is the activity of making citizens' voices, opinions, and perspectives “present” in the public policy making processes. Political representation occurs when political actors speak, advocate, symbolize, and act on the behalf of others in the political arena

• Eg. Voting• John Courtney – political scientist found BC, Alberta

and Ontario have fastest growing populations and are underrepresented in House of Commons. Is this fair? Do we apply a utilitarian response?

Page 22: Social and Political Philosophy

RACE AND REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA

• Politics of Representation:• When minorities struggle for

recognition/rights/sharing of power in political, cultural and media institutions

• Discloses fundamental human need: drive for identity: to escape the “psychic prison”of a world view that excludes or denies (Fleras:307)

• Media forms an important function in:• Framing• Recognizing• Representing Cultural/ethnographic groups

Page 23: Social and Political Philosophy

ISSUES AND PROBLEMS

• In media:• Analysis of ownership & control• Analysis of workers/work routines in news

manufacture• Analysis media contents/reception ( latter

scarce)• In society

• Socio economic studies• Social dysfunctions ( conflict, threats to social

cohesion)• Anti social behaviors: stereotyping/hate/social

exclusiveness

Page 24: Social and Political Philosophy

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MEDIA• Aboriginals, people of colour, immigrants and

refugees tend to be underrepresented • Invisible• Irrelevant• Victimized• Trivialized

• Or misrepresented• Race-Role Stereotyped ( Fleras: 286)• Demonized• Scapegoated• Whitewashed/Tokenized

Page 25: Social and Political Philosophy

WHAT SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY?

• Charter of Rights and Freedoms• S. 15 (1)

• No one is to be discriminated against, regardless of race or ethnicity

• In Broadcasting Act (1991): • Serve the needs and interests and reflect the

circumstances and aspirations of Canadian men, women and children, including equal rights, … and the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canadian society and the special place of aboriginal people in that society

• In 1985 CRTC introduces Ethnic Broadcasting Policy: allows entry of private sector stations catering to other language groups( but access to fewer public subsidies )

Page 26: Social and Political Philosophy

IDENTITY

• A subjective sense of belonging

• Self Identity• Social Identity• Political Identity

Page 27: Social and Political Philosophy

SELF IDENTITY• Your life history• Explains why you do something, who you want to be, and

what to do about advancing your interests• May be personal style, personal peer and family identity (

notion of primary group)

Page 28: Social and Political Philosophy

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY

• Importance of a person’s social identity in forming self-concept

• Group based aspects of an individual’s self-definition, derived from membership in and identification with social groups

• ( black pride movement: hip hop subculture etc.)

Page 29: Social and Political Philosophy

SOCIAL IDENTITY

• Associated with the rights, obligations and sanctions you enjoy in your social roles

• Usual markers are age, sex, race ( immutable social markers)

• Primordial realms: immediate community of work or living

• Increasingly involving social causes/missions

• Media are resources in finding social identities: role assimilation

Page 30: Social and Political Philosophy

NEW IDEAS ABOUT IDENTITY

• Refute notion of identity as fixed, universal or essential

• Sees media as a major resource for the construction of cultural identities within the lived experience of everyday life

• Accessible to virtually everybodySite of popular knowledge

• Identity in continual contest and construction

Page 31: Social and Political Philosophy

STEREOTYPE

• From the Greek: stereos (solid) and typos ( mark)• What Walter Lipmann calls fixed pictures in the head• A form of mental shorthand of associations with social

beings/ as sorted into social categories/ by traits real or imagined

• Minority critics often argue they are false or generalized, without regard for individual differences

• Generally carry embedded grains of social truth• “blondes” etc.• “ white men can’t jump”

• Media Stereotypes have greater effects if not countered by lived experience ( Hartman and Husband)

Page 32: Social and Political Philosophy

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE GLOBAL VILLAGE

• Never more of a crisis than today• Liberals fear September 11 2001 has set back

international understanding: led to a new ‘cold war’ among Muslim and other countries

• Jihad or McWorld?• Are we growing together or apart? Do we respect

other cultures or fear them? • Is cultural identity nostalgic– to be kept ‘pure’-- or

adaptive: enlarged and enriched through intermixture?

Page 33: Social and Political Philosophy

NEW THEORIES OF IDENTITY

• Multiple ( as citizen, buyer, as Chinese, as Canadian, as university student, as worker)

• Hybrid ( fusion of generational identity of immigrants) ( not simple assimilation)

• Rationalized in a coherent whole

Page 34: Social and Political Philosophy

DIMENSIONS OF COHESIVE IDENTITY

• Sense of belongingness-isolation• Inclusiveness-exclusiveness• Participation-non-participation• Recognition-rejection• Legitimacy-illegitimacy

Page 35: Social and Political Philosophy

SOCIAL JUSTICE, RECOGNITION AND REDISTRIBUTION

• Social inclusion and social justice – a multi-dimensional approach• It’s about income, but about more …’ (Blair, 1997)• ‘National economic and social policies will no longer

be working at cross purposes’ (Gillard, 2008)• Fraser articulated a vision of how economic and

cultural factors create injustice together, and how social justice requires both redistribution and recognition• ‘Justice today requires both redistribution and

recognition’ (Fraser, 2003, p.9)• Eg economic and cultural aspects of sexism ,

racism and poverty

Page 36: Social and Political Philosophy

SOCIAL INCLUSION AND DIFFERENCE

• Perhaps social inclusion’s limited ability to accommodate difference is not surprising

• Social inclusion is not just a suite of policies or a new way of doing governance - it is also a vision, set of values and way of seeing the world that is necessarily normative

Page 37: Social and Political Philosophy

CONCLUSION

• For a stronger philosophical under-pinning to social inclusion thinking, and better social inclusion policy, we need a greater recognition of recognition issues.

• If we are to better encompass diversity and difference within the conceptualization of social inclusion, and its policies, social inclusion as a normative concept will need to be challenged, stretched, and re-invented.

• At its best, the concept of social inclusion will grow to take more diverse perspectives into account, and better reflect the multi-dimensional nature it aspires to.

Page 38: Social and Political Philosophy

POLITICS OF RECOGNITION

• Charles Taylor reading and questions