Book offers new analysis of justice theory

Rawls’s Egalitarianism is a new interpretation and analysis of John Rawls’s leading theory of distributive justice. It was written by Andrew Kaufman, an associate professor of political science in UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Rawls’s theory, Kaufman argues, sets out a normative ideal of justice that incorporates an account of the structure and character of relations that are appropriate for members of society viewed as free and equal moral beings. Forging an approach distinct among contemporary theories of equality, Rawls offers an alternative to egalitarian justice methodologies that aim primarily to compensate victims for undeserved bad luck.

For Rawls, the values that ground the most plausible account of egalitarianism are real equality of economic opportunity combined with the guarantee of a fair distribution of social goods. Kaufman’s analysis will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of political theory and political philosophy.