Justice by Means of Democracy

Harvard FAS

This course examines how theories of justice and freedom shape societies' diagnoses of social and economic problems and generate institutional and policy choices under real-world constraints. Beginning with questions about values, paradigms, and explanation, the course moves through competing diagnoses of contemporary political, economic, and social crisis—including the dominant Rawlsian framework that has guided much U.S. and global policy-making—and develops a working hypothesis for their…