Abstract
Latent in John Rawls’s discussion of envy, resentment and voluntary social segregation is a plausible (partial) explanation of two striking features of contemporary American life: (1) widespread complacency about inequality and (2) decreased political participation, especially by the least advantaged members of society.
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- 1.
For helpful feedback on this paper, I thank Michael Doan, the participants in the 2012 AMINTAPHIL conference and the editors of this volume.
- 2.
Cited in Stiglitz (2012, 8n27).
- 3.
Stiglitz writes that “[o]nly 42 percent of Americans believe that inequality has increased in the past ten years…Several studies have confirmed that perceptions of social mobility are overly optimistic” (2012, 147). Consider, also, a recent experiment which showed that most Americans radically underestimate the amount of inequality in their society (Norton and Ariely 2011).
- 4.
Rawls says that “the discrepancy between oneself and others is made visible by the social structure and style of life of one’s society. The less fortunate are therefore often forcibly reminded of their situation, sometimes leading them to an even lower estimation of themselves and their mode of living. And … they see their social position as allowing no constructive alternative to opposing the favored circumstances of the more advantaged” (1999, 469).
- 5.
See Rawls (1999, 216) for the distinction between ideal and nonideal theory.
- 6.
See Rawls (1999, 115) on the ‘publicity condition’.
- 7.
For an instructive discussion of Rawls’s ‘congruence argument’, see Freeman (2002).
- 8.
This is a provocative passage, but it has received almost no critical attention. A notable exception is Cohen (2008, 384).
- 9.
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Navin, M. (2014). Rawls on Inequality, Social Segregation and Democracy. In: Cudd, A., Scholz, S. (eds) Philosophical Perspectives on Democracy in the 21st Century. AMINTAPHIL: The Philosophical Foundations of Law and Justice, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02312-0_10
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