Rawls and Natural Aristocracy
Rawls and Natural Aristocracy

Summary/Abstract: The author discusses Rawls’s conception of socioeconomic justice, DemocraticEquality. He contrasts Rawls’s account, which includes the difference principleconstrained by the principle of fair equality of opportunity, with Natural Aristocracy,which constrains the difference principle only by the principle of careers open totalents. According to the author, many of Rawls’s own arguments support NaturalAristocracy over Democratic Equality. In particular, Natural Aristocracy appearswell placed to avoid a challenge that naturally arises in consideration of DemocraticEquality, with respect to which formal distributive principle should deal with socialand natural causes of inequality. The challenge is to cite a morally relevant distinctionwhich supports the appropriateness of dealing with natural causes of inequalitydifferently to those generated by social causes. In support of his proposal, the authoralso appeals to certain arguments in Rawls’s Political Liberalism.

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