Communitarian perspective on Justice

According to Liberal individualism, individuals are free, rational, and capable of self-determination. They believe individual interests are better promoted by letting them choose for themselves what sort of life they want to lead.

Michael Sandel in his Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982), developed a critique of the liberal individualist foundations of John Rawls's theory of Liberal justice.

John Rawls's theory of justice as fairness is a contractarian theory that establishes moral principles for a just society. His theory of justice is based on the idea that free and rational people would agree to the principles of justice to establish an equal grounding for individuals.

Michael Sandel criticizes Rawls's notion of disembodied or unencumbered self or subject in opposition to which he advances the notion of the situated self i.e., the self or subject, who is invariably a member of a community. While, for Rawls, the right is prior to good and justice is the first virtue of society, for Sandel, justice is only a remedial virtue that is needed in an individualistic society.

In contrast to liberalism's 'isolated self', Communitarians introduced the concept of 'situated self'. Sandel asserts that liberal theories have failed to recognize our embeddedness in a particular time, place, and culture.

Michael Walzer argued that the requirements of justice could only be identified in the context of a particular community, its practices, and its institutions.

According to Communitarians, each individual develops their own identity, and talents in the context of community. Groups and communities occupy an intermediate position between the individual and the state and should be included among the kinds of rights and duty-bearing units.

According to Charles Taylor, the concept of a liberal atomistic man treats a human being only as a manifestation of will and ignores the complexities of human personality which would develop human beings to constantly reflect on their life to find its meaning.

Michael Sandel urges that political theory should help in generating such laws, institutions, and practices that are genuinely good for us and instrumental in creating a fully just society. Justice cannot be secured by isolated individuals seeking personal profit, but by those who create a 'deeper commonality' through 'shared self-understanding' and mutual affection.

 

Examine the Communitarian perspective on Justice. (UPSC 2019 Paper 1A - Qn 2b)

Rawls's idea of the liberal self is too individualistic. Explain, in this context, the communitarian critique of Rawls's theory of justice. (UPSC 2023 Paper 1A - Qn 2b)

Explicate the conception of justice in the critiques of communitarian critiques.

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