Browsing by Subject "Rawls"

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Open Access
Color-blindness in rawls’s theory of justice
(2019-05) Oktay, Emine Naz
I argue that Rawls’s theory of justice cannot be a guide to rectify or even to address racial injustice. While critics of Rawls’s theory do not particularly focus on colorblind discourse, my critique builds on this problematic feature of Rawls's account. In particular, the original position, a central element of the motivation for Rawls's account, is constructed from a color-blind perspective. For the case of racial injustices, any ideal drawn from a color-blind perspective cannot be of any help, since it emphasizes equality and sameness of all human beings. This serves to cover up the deep causes of racial inequalities and contributes to maintenance of racial structure in society. In order to illustrate my point, I use Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s conceptualization of color-blindness as “color-blind racism”, which makes clear the negative impact of a focus on egalitarian considerations. Surely, Rawls’s conception of a perfectly just society is taken by him as a part of ideal theory. Yet, even though questions of racial injustices are part of nonideal theory, the fact that his ideal theory is the foundation of his normative theory renders this defense questionable, as Charles Mills also emphasizes. This is because it suggests that our actual society would become more just, if it approximates to his ideal society. And since ideal society is a color-blind one, my worry is that Rawls’s normative account is also color-blind and would give us a society where racial structures remain intact and keep producing racial inequalities.
Open Access
Reflections upon contemporary Turkish democracy : a Rawlsian perspective
(2009) Yıldız, Necip
In this dissertation, John Rawls’ ‘justice as fairness’ is applied to contemporary Turkey and used as a framework to reflect upon democratization process in Turkey. In order to substantiate how Rawls’ political liberalism and justice as fairness are related to democratization process in general, and to Turkish democratization in particular, first, the possible relations between Rawls’ conceptualization of ‘constitutional consensus,’ ‘overlapping consensus,’ and the basic concepts in the democratization literature are analyzed. It is argued that the initial stage of ‘constitutional consensus’ on democratic procedures (being only a modus vivendi) corresponds to ‘democratic transition.’ On the other hand, it is argued that the finalized stage of constitutional consensus corresponds to ‘minimalist’ and ‘negative’ democratic consolidation. Finally, it is claimed that ‘overlapping consensus’ corresponds to ‘maximalist’ and ‘positive’ democratic consolidation. When we apply these concepts to the Turkish case, it is seen that Turkey displays certain attitudinal and behavioral deficiencies in terms of meeting all the conditions of a ‘constitutional consensus’ by which democratic procedures would supposedly be secured; however, it is also argued that Turkey is moving closer to a ‘constitutional consensus’ as the major groups in Turkey gradually adhere to these procedures. In this regard, Turkey is depicted as a ‘borderline’ case in terms of meeting the conditions of a ‘constitutional consensus,’ which is also supported by Turkey’s recent Freedom House ratings that denote a borderline situation. With respect to the possibility of forming an ‘overlapping consensus’ in the longer run in Turkey, four major issues are addressed in the study: basic rights and liberties, social justice, secularism, and the Kurdish issue. Rawls’ veil of ignorance and two principles of justice are applied to these four issues, and their implications are discussed. It is argued that equality, reciprocity, and the use of public reason would be crucial in terms of forming an overlapping consensus on these issues. Another central issue discussed in the dissertation is the issue of socio-economic modernization that is taken for granted in Rawls’ writings, and Turkey’s opportunities for consolidating its democracy in the coming years with reference to socio-economic modernization. Based on the empirical findings of modernization theory, it is argued that Turkey’s rising income and human development levels might serve to facilitate democratic development in Turkey. It is claimed that higher levels of socio-economic development, possibly enhanced by Turkey’s EU-based reforms, might create a more conducive environment for further democratic reforms, as a result of which Rawls’ peculiar political liberalism could become gradually more applicable and more likely to be realized in Turkey. It is also argued that a more just distribution of income and wealth, which might possibly be realized through a ‘property-owning democracy,’ would be more conducive to democratic consolidation in Turkey.