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What type of social system does social justice require? Is it compatible with capitalism? Does it require a form of socialism? Or must we move beyond existing models and explore hypothetical alternatives, such as a property-owning democracy? This module explores these and other questions through the lens of recent theories of social justice.

We will begin by introducing key concepts through the lens of John Rawls’s influential theory of justice before examining his surprising rejection of capitalism in his later work. The first half of the course will then be devoted to critically engaging with recent defences of Rawls’s two preferred alternatives to capitalism – a ‘property-owning democracy’ and ‘liberal socialism’ – as well as recent defences of two more familiar types of social system the later Rawls rejected: welfare-state capitalism and laissez-faire capitalism. We will link each regime-type to more familiar policy demands in contemporary politics, such as predistribution, workplace democracy, universal basic income, and privatisation.

The second half of the course will examine several applied issues of justice that are somewhat overlooked by the framing of recent Rawlsian debates about systems of ownership. For example, what role should public and community ownership play in a just economy? How should reproductive work be conceptualised and organised to ensure gender justice? Must existing proposals be supplemented by reparations to ensure racial justice? Do existing proposals remain compatible with troubling forms of corporate power? If so, how is this best combatted: through antimonopoly policies, emboldened trade unionism, or something else?

In the final week, we will build on these debates to reconsider how best to understand the demands of social justice and the available institutional choices.