J RAWLS, The Laws of Peoples-with the Idea of Public Reason Revisited, Harvard University Press: USA, 1999. John Rawls was an influential political philosopher and his publications are widely read. One of which is the Law of Peoples published in 1993 which is the subject of my study. In the Law of Peoples Rawls concerns of the general principles whereby one can uphold and be accept by the liberal people as well as the non-liberal society. “This principle is a standard for which can be useful in regulating the behavior of the citizens towards one and other.” The liberal people have a just constitutional democracy government that serves their basic interests. This means the government is under the effective control of their political and …show more content…
“When the Law of Peoples are honored by people with the intention to comply, these people draw mutual confidence and trust in each other. In the course of time they see as an ideal conduct.” The principle of toleration is also considered in the Law of Peoples when in the domestic case the plurality of actual and possible reasonable comprehensive conception of good is tolerated. The ideal theory concerns principles of governing all liberal peoples and it requires the plurality of liberalism be tolerated. But this principle of toleration is extended beyond liberalism and opens to non-liberal people. “There are ways of ordering society that are decent and to be tolerated. A decent but non-liberal way of societal ordering is referred to as a decent hierarchical …show more content…
The non-ideal is where the regime refuses to comply with the law of peoples. Law of people allow for self-defense to safeguard and protect when the human rights are violated. The Law of Peoples stipulates principles that are to govern the relationships between peoples. At the center of the theoretical position, is the public reason which cleanse or purifies taint of controversial issues and provide a way for the attainment of peace. “The public reason specifies basic moral and political values to determine a constitutional democratic government relation to the citizens.” In other words it is meant to say that it concerns how the political relation is to be understood. However those who reject constitutional democracy will also reject the idea of public reason because for them it is a relation of friend or foe to some particular group. The law of people is concerned with the well-being of individual. It is the justice and stability for the right reason of decent and liberal society, living as members of a society of well-ordered peoples. It is to reduce inequalities and promote justice among peoples and states in its international relations and practice that the final end of peace may be
America is a country whose ideals are based on freedom and democracy. However these ideas are not original, in fact many of the common ideas found in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence resemble the writings of people in the past. Even early documents pivotal to American independence such as Common Sense by Thomas Paine and the Virginia Declaration of Independence can be traced down to these early documents. The age of enlightenment brought several philosophers with new ideas, such as John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. The works of these men helped to inspire a new way of thinking, towards freedom and democracy, the founding fathers embraced these ideas.
The Grapes of Wrath Versus Civil Disobedience As long as government has existed, so has conflict over which type is best-suited to unite and serve an advanced society. John Steinbeck presents his vision of an ideal government, as created by migrant families in Chapter 17 of his novel, The Grapes of Wrath. In his earlier essay, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau promotes his own idea of the optimal government: little to no government at all. Moreover, there are several differences and similarities between the ideas about government, democracy, and the nature of humanity suggested by Steinbeck and Thoreau that are crucial to the broader impact of each work and their combined significance.
According to Robert Reich, “The liberal ideal is that everyone should have fair access and fair opportunity. This is not equality of result. It's equality of opportunity. There's a fundamental difference.” Liberals are also concerned about the concentration of wealth because it almost inevitably leads to a concentration of power that can destroy democracy.
Finally, the last ideal is the right to abolish or alter the government. ¨… it is the Right of the People,¨ the Declaration of Independence states, ¨to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.¨ This means if the government is no longer fair, doesn't respect their rights, becomes a tyrant, etc., the citizens have the right to alter the government to make it better and
Rawls was not happy whit the original arguments about what makes a social institution just. The utilitariam argument says that societies should pursue the greatest good for the greatest number. This argument has many problems, excpecially that it seems to be consistant with the belief of majorities over minorities. The institution argument holds that human intuit what is wright or wrong by some innate moral sense. Rawls attempts to provide a good account of social justice through the social contract approach.
In his book, Rights of Man, pamphleteer Thomas Paine explains that, in his eyes, America is nearly the perfect society. He states that even though there are so many “people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habitats of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship”, America manages to stay cordially united. Today, the fact that America is made up of people from all over the world is still holds true, but it is nowhere near flawless. Violence in America has gone up drastically in the past few years, there is a huge difference between the upper and lower class, and different types of people are discriminated against. In 1791, when Paine wrote his book, he claimed that the government
Liberals began a process of change. Liberals are people who are pushing for freedom, equality, democracy and human rights. They are individuals who believe that the government must take action to change economic, political, and ideological policies and structures that may be unfair. In this way, Liberals show progress by fighting for a change that the government has to make, being the head of the nation. An example is the conservatives wanting less government power in the 1920s.
Liberal is a paradigm which is a belief in the positive uses of government to bring justice, equality of opportunity, peace and looks more to the nature of state. Liberalism is a philosophy based on the belief about the ultimate value of individual freedom and the opportunities for human progress. Liberalism is talking about rationality, moral autonomy, human rights, democracy, opportunity, and choice that built upon commitment to the principles of freedom and equality. There is a long traditional in Liberal thinking about international relations’ characteristic. . Liberalist are thinking how to create a peaceful relation among country up to relation among individual and one of the sytemic and deeper explanation is brought by a German philospher, Immanuel Kant with his essay entitled “Perpetual Peace” .
Rule of law is essentially the shared values of a people. Rule of law also means that no matter who you are Prime Minister, richest man/woman on the planet, or the most famous person alive the law is no different and that is where the whole concept of justice is blind comes
Political theorists, whether they are realists, or liberalists, over the centuries, have come into conflict over what they believe to be the utmost important task of the state. Hobbes believes the most important task of the state is to ensure law and order, rooting his argument in the idea of a sovereign ruler. On the other hand, Rawls, a modern theorist, firmly believes that a state should focus on realising justice within their society. While a utopian society cannot be achieved by either of these theories, I will highlight why Rawls was right in his assumption that the main focus of a state should be to ensure justice for all within their nation, through analysing and comparing the conflicting arguments of Hobbes and Rawls.
As stated by Student News Daily (2005): “Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all. It is the duty of the government to alleviate social ills and to protect civil liberties and individual and human rights. [Liberals] believe the role of the government should be to guarantee that no one is in need. Liberal policies generally emphasize the need for the government to solve problems”.
He supports the idea that human rights are a result of society. This is because he viewed human rights claims and institutions as being “unique”. He argues that human rights in an institution specific to particular culture and historic context and is in fact a human construction. Waters does not believe that all human rights do not involve all made against the state. Human rights can only include claims that are recognised as fundamental to a political community’s member’s humanity in Waters’ opinion.
Liberal Democracy is a democratic system of government in which individual rights and freedoms are officially recognized and protected, and the exercise of political power is limited by the rule of law. The word democracy is greek, the word “demos” means people and “kratos” means power. The idea of liberalism first began in the 1600’s with John Locke as he believed that the people should be allowed to remove the government currently ruling when they have misused their power for ulterior motives. Although the seed was planted in the 1600’s, liberal democracy only properly took form in the 1840’s in Canada. Australia and New Zealand followed not long after as they began to use the secret ballot system to elect political leaders.
‘The Rule of Law’ came into popularity under the hands of A.V. Dicey in the 19th Century. Aristotle, another renowned philosopher once said more than two thousand years ago, "The rule of law is better than that of any individual. " [1] The Rule of Law is ultimately, the foundation of democracy that every country should acquire for the better of their own legal systems, regardless of whether it is criminal law, civil law or public law. It is a major source of legitimation for governments in the modern world. A government that abides by the rule of law is seen as good and worthy of respect.