What Is Liberal Egalitarianism

In an Egalitarian society, when it comes to justice, equality and basic human rights come to mind. Now, when I think of John Rawls, I think of a liberal egalitarian. Similar, yes. Moreover, liberal egalitarianism is more encouraging, if you will. Why? Fairness. Rawls provides a theory called justice as fairness. Within this theory, he presents two principles of justice. Principles in which, human beings can refer to when decisions are to be made, for instance, decisions on the constitution, laws, so on and so forth. The first principle can be sought of as the principle of rights, equal basic liberties. “Each person has the same indefeasible claim to a fully adequate scheme of equal basic liberties, which scheme is compatible with the same scheme of liberties for all” (John Rawls; Justice as Fairness, page 42 (online text)). …show more content…
Wait, doesn’t this sound familiar? Furthermore, the second principle is more related to equality. “Social and economic inequalities are to be attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity; and second, they are to be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged members of society (the difference principle)” (John Rawls; Justice as Fairness, page 42 (online text)). This principle suggests that all human beings are entitled to the same opportunities rich or poor, weather that be educational or even, economical. Furthermore, this principle also puts forth a distribution regulation of wealth and income, rather, as we know it, goods. Is liberty determined by the goods? Rather, does the amount of goods distributed determine what can be done with/the usefulness of