Socioeconomic Justice: Beyond The Welfare State?

In Western liberal democracies, the prime vehicle to institutionalize socioeconomic justice has so far been the welfare state. Quite apart from being under threat in an increasingly globalised economy, the welfare state raises important theoretical problems: can a welfare state constitute an adequate implementation of liberal egalitarian theories of justice? Does theorizing social justice for liberal democracies have to start from an account of how the welfare state works, indicating proposals for improvement and reform rather than wholly alternative set-ups? John Rawls, in his later works, seemed to answer "no" to both questions, and recommended a regime of "property-owning democracy" instead, which merits a closer look. Another concern, and one that is interestingly raised by both the political right and the left, is that the welfare state is harmful to personal independence; on this basis, it has also been proposed to replace existing welfare arrangements by an unconditional basic income, or by a one-off stakeholder grant. Finally, existing welfare state regimes have also often been criticized for their exclusionary nature, for creating unjustifiable insider/outsider-dichotomies. Are these fair criticisms? Do they apply to all existing types of welfare regimes?

The workshop will take up these and related issues, bringing together philosophers and political scientists working on the welfare state.

For questions and registration, please contact the administrative officer of Justitia Amplificata, Ms Valérie Bignon ([email protected]).