Question

Mention three features of social justice

Answer 1

Social justice is a concept of fair andjust relations between the individual andsociety. This is measured by the explicit and tacit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity, and social privileges. In Westernas well as in older Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fulfill their societal roles and receive what was their due from society.[1][2][3] In the current globalgrassroots movements for social justice, the emphasis has been on the breaking of barriers for social mobility, the creation of safety nets andeconomic justice.[4][5][6][7][8]

Social justice assigns rights and duties in the institutions of society, which enables people to receive the basic benefits and burdens of cooperation. The relevant institutions often includetaxation, social insurance, public health,public school, public services, labor lawand regulation of markets, to ensure fairdistribution of wealth, and equal opportunity.[9]

Interpretations that relate justice to areciprocal relationship to society are mediated by differences in cultural traditions, some of which emphasize the individual responsibility toward society and others the equilibrium between access to power and its responsible use.[10] Hence, social justice is invoked today while reinterpreting historical figures such as Bartolomé de las Casas, in philosophical debates about differences among human beings, in efforts for gender, racial and social equality, for advocating justice formigrants, prisoners, the environment, and the physically and developmentallydisabled.[11][12][13][14]

While the concept of social justice can be traced through the theology ofAugustine of Hippo and the philosophy of Thomas Paine, the term "social justice" became used explicitly from the 1840s. A Jesuit priest named Luigi Taparelli is typically credited with coining the term, and it spread during the revolutions of 1848 with the work ofAntonio Rosmini-Serbati.[2][15][16]However, recent research has proved that the use of the expression "social justice" is older (even before the 19th century).[17] In the late industrial revolution, progressive American legal scholars began to use the term more, particularly Louis Brandeis and Roscoe Pound. From the early 20th century it was also embedded in international lawand institutions; the preamble to establish the International Labour Organization recalled that "universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice." In the later 20th century, social justice was made central to the philosophy of thesocial contract, primarily by John Rawlsin A Theory of Justice (1971). In 1993, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action treats social justice as a purpose of human rights education.[18][19]

Some authors such as Friedrich Hayekcriticize the concept of social justice, arguing the lack of objective, accepted moral standard; and that while there is a legal definition of what is just and equitable "there is no test of what is socially unjust", and further that social justice is often used for the reallocation of resources based on an arbitrary standard which may in fact be inequitable or unjust.