Political Philosophy, Law, and Public Policy

Abstract

In democratic political life, political philosophy, law, and public policy are often interrelated. John Rawls’s abstract thought experiment to develop, behind a veil of ignorance, basic institutions for already well-ordered and law-abiding societies, may not be relevant to the correction of practical injustice. Amartya Sen’s idea of addressing human capabilities and practices of applicative justice, better addresses real-life injustice. Concerns about affirmative action and racial profiling involve questions about their injustice. The US Supreme Court has upheld affirmative action only as part of a full range of individual qualifications. Police racial profiling has led to homicides against unarmed young black men, although police discretion has been upheld by the US Supreme Court.

Discussion Questions

• 1. Explain how the relationship between political principles, law, and public policy may be complicated.

• 2. Describe how the consensus of racial equality among contemporary political philosophers is not grounded on foundational principles of democracy in a historical sense.

• 3. What are the major problems with moral equality as Rawls posits it? What are the problems with a factual basis for human equality? How is ideal theory related to nonideal theory, according to Rawls?

• 4. Explain why applicative justice does not always correct experiences of injustice.

• 5. Why does Amartya Sen call Rawls’s ideal theory “transcendental institutionalism”? How does his capabilities approach avoid the pitfalls of ideal theory?

• 6. If legacies, or the descendants of alumni, and athletes receive preference in college admission, how is that different from race-based preference?

• 7. How is racial profiling related to residential racial segregation? Is it unjust?

• 8. In what ways are high profile cases of police homicide legally protected, based on Supreme Court rulings?

• 9. Discuss the relationships between “Black Lives Matter,” “Blue Lives Matter,” and “All Lives Matter.”

• 10. Explain how public opinion is relevant to police behavior. What does this imply about the democratic nature of the US society?

Glossary

Affirmative action

—practice of positively considering nonwhite race and female gender for hiring and college admissions.

applicative justice

—process of extending justice already applied to some people, to new groups or individuals.

autonomy

—self rule.

capabilities approach

—an economic focus on the ability of individuals to transform goods available to them into instruments for their own well-being.

difference principle

—restriction on inequality in society, according to John Rawls, so that the least well off benefit from changes in distribution.

ideal theory

—principles of justice for well-ordered liberal societies.

injustice theory

—a method of starting from actual injustice instead of constructing ideals of justice.

nonideal theory

—theories of justice for nonideal societies that seek to bring them closer to ideal societies.

probable cause

—evidence of criminal behavior that justifies police intervention.

public policy

—official practice that establishes routines of behavior in society.

racial profiling

—the use of nonwhite race as a cause for police intervention.

quotas

—unpopular practice of specifying numbers of minorities to be included.

strict scrutiny

—judicial practice of closely examining the purpose of using race for employment and college admissions and determining that such usage does not exceed its purpose.

welfare economics

—economic study of how people benefit from different economic structures and policies.

well-ordered society

—people know what the laws are and know that others do also and that their society is just.