Liberalism, Justice and Cultural Plurality

Klasični je liberalizam nasuprot tradicionalnim koncepcijama uspostavio shvaćanje pravednosti koje postulira jednakost individualnih (negativnih) sloboda i (obrambenih) prava. Pod utjecajem socijalističke kritike suvuremeni liberali pokušavaju integrirati u pojam pravednosti i problem distribucije pozitivnih sloboda i prava. Danas već klasični pokušaj rješenja problema jest teorija pravednost Johna Rawlsa. Rawls definira pravednost kao fairness, čija su osnovna načela jednakost temeljnih sloboda pojedinca kompatibilnih sa slobodom drugih pojedinaca, distribucija dobara koja najviše koriste najmanje povlaštenima, primat slobode pred socijalnom jednakošću kao i pravednosti pred ekonomskom efikasnoću. U pluralističkim društvu ova načela trebaju omogućiti uspsotavu "podudarajućeg konsenzusa" (overlapping consensus) među divergentnim socijalnim i svjetonazorskim grupama u pitanjima temeljne strukture društva. Pokušavajući riješiti pitanja socijalne jednakosti koja Rawlsova teorija ostavlja otvorenima, Michael Walzer postulira načelo složene jednakosti, koje za različite vrste dobara zahtijeva različite načine raspodjele. Vrste dobara ne mogu se unaprijed odrediti, nego se u njihovu razdvajanju nastoji sastoji najvažnije umijeće liberalne politike. Napkon, autor smatra da se pitanje pravedne političke organizacije multikulturnog društva može riješiti primjenom Rawlsova načela fairnessa na stvarne postupke pregovaranja i postizanja punktuelnog konsenzusa među divergentnim kulturnim grupama.Classical liberalism as opposed to traditional concepts has established a notion of justice which envisages the equality of individual (negative) freedoms and (tutelary) rights. Under the influence of socialist criticism modern-day liberals have been trying to include within the concept of justice the problem of distribution of positive freedoms and rights. The already classic attempt of solving this problem is the theory of justice by John Rawls. Rawls defines justice as fairness, whose basic principles are: the the equality of basic freedoms of individuals compatible with the freedom of other individuals, the distrubution of goods which will benefit most the least privileged, the primacy of freedom over social equality and justic over economic efficiency. In a pluralist society these principles should facilitate the establishment of the "overlapping consensus" among divergent social groups on the issues of basic social structure. In his attempt to solve the problems of social equality which Rawls\u27 theory leaves open-ended, Michael Walzer postulates the principle of complex equality which requires different ways of distribution for different types of goods. These types cannot be specified in advance; however their distribution is the most remarkable skill of liberal politics. Finally, the author claims that the problem of a just political organization of multicultural societies can be solved by applying Rawls\u27 principle of fairness on the negotiating processes and on achieving consensus among divergent cultural groups on certain issues