The Equity Principle of J. Rawls and Special Preferential Treatment

Since the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, its Title 7 in particular, the economic discrimination against minority groups has decreased remarkably in the United States. This achievement has resulted mainly from the efforts of the Democratic Party, black power movement, Women's Lib movement and other social movements. However, a movement will not last very long without its supporting theory. The discrimination abolition movement in the United States was based on A Theory of Justice by John Rawls. The purpose of this paper is to introduce his theory. In the core of his theory is a proposal to maximize the favorable conditions for economic and social activities of the most disadvantaged people in an institutionally unequal society. This step is equity in the true sense of the word, and it is called "Max-min equity principle." This principle requires reasonable special preferential treatment to the historically handicapped groups such as black people at the starting point of social competition. For this purpose, Rawls justifies the so-called "reverse discrimination." Its concrete policy is the "Affirmative Action Program (discrimination abolition policy)", and it was realized as the "Quota System."3KJ00004282548論文Articledepartmental bulletin pape