Liberty, Equality and Justice
Liberty, Equality and Justice
Liberty, Equality and Justice
What is liberty? What is equality? What is justice? How can they be defined? How can they be
achieved? These are the important questions for political philosophy. Political
philosophers have always attempted to clarify and answer them. With the development
of modern state the notion of liberty, equality have discussed widely by the political
thinkers such as John Locke, J.S Mill, Hegel, John Rawls, Roberst Nozick, Isaiah Berlin
significantly.
Liberty, Equality and Justice together makes the Democratic values. There is an intimate
or inseparable relation between these there values. In short one can say that, where
there is liberty there is justice and where there is justice there is equality. Lets us have
discuss all these three principles one by one, so that one can have a very comprehensive
understanding.
Liberty: Of all the rights which are considered fundamental for the development of the
personality of the individual, the right to liberty or freedom happens to be most
respected and valued. In fact without liberty, i.e. without the freedom to enjoy one’s
rights, there can be no real right available to the people. Liberty, as such, is the most
cherished and loved right of the people.
The word “Liberty” derived from the Latin word ‘Liber” which means ‘free’. In this
sense liberty means freedom from restraints and the freedom to act as one likes.
Liberty is usually defined in two ways: Negative Liberty & Positive Liberty:
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(B) Positive Liberty:
In its positive sense, Liberty is taken to mean freedom under rational and logical i.e.
restraints which are rational and have stood the test of time. It means liberty under the
rational and necessary restraints imposed by law. These restraints are considered
essential for ensuring the enjoyment of liberty by all the people. In a civil society only
positive liberty can be available to the people.
Features/Nature of Liberty:
(ii) Liberty admits the presence of rational restraints and the absence of irrational
restraints.
(iii) Liberty postulates the existence of such conditions as can enable the people to enjoy
their rights and develop their personalities.
(iv) Liberty is not a license to do anything and everything. It means the freedom to do
only those things which are considered worth-doing or worth-enjoying.
(v) Liberty is possible only in a civil society and not in a state of nature or a ‘state of
jungle’. State of anarchy can never be a state, of Liberty.
(vi) Liberty is for all. Liberty means the presence of adequate opportunities for all as can
enable them to use their rights.
(vii) In society law is an essential condition of liberty. Law maintains conditions which
are essential for the enjoyment of Liberty by all the people of the state.
(viii) Liberty the most fundamental of all the rights. It is the condition and the most
essential right of the people. Liberty enjoys priority next only to the right to life.
In contemporary times, the positive view of liberty stands fully and universally
recognized as the real, accepted, and really productive view of Liberty.
Types of Liberty: Political thinkers often classifies liberty as different kinds - Natural
Liberty, Civil Liberty, Political Liberty, Individual Liberty/ Personal Liberty, Economic
Liberty, National Liberty, Religious Liberty, Moral Liberty.
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Equality:
Like liberty, equality is one of the most valuable rights of the people. These constitute
two basic pillars of democracy. By equality, we generally mean that all men are equal
and all should be entitled to identity of treatment and income. “Men are born, and
always continue, free and equal in respect of their rights”.
Those who argue for some form of equality are known as egalitarians. The motivation
for achieving this equality is usually a moral one: it may be grounded on the Christian
belief that we are all equal in the eyes of god.
But how are we to understand ‘equality’? Obviously human beings could never be
equal in every aspect. Individuals differ in intelligence, beauty, athletic power, height,
hair color, place of birth, dress sense, and many others. It would be ridiculous to argue
that people should be absolutely equal in every respect.
Equality is, then, always equality in certain respects, not in every respect. So when
someone declares him or herself to be an egalitarian it is important to discover in what
sense they mean this. In other words, ‘equality’ used in the political context is more or
less meaningless unless there is some explanation of what it is that should be more
equally shared and by whom. Professor Laski has very aptly remarked in this
connection:
“Equality does not mean the identity of treatment or the sameness of
reward. If a bricklayer gets the same reward as a mathematician or a
scientist, the purpose of society will be defeated. Equality, therefore,
means, first of all the absence of social privilege. In the second place it
means that adequate opportunities are laid open to all”.
Social Equality:
Social equality means that all the citizens are entitled to enjoy equal status in society
and no one is entitled to special privileges. There should not be any distinction of caste
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and creed, colour and race, groups and classes, clans and tribes All should have an
equal opportunity to develop his personality.
Civil/Legal Equality:
Secondly, we have the concept of Civil Liberty. Civil liberty consists in the enjoyment of
similar civil liberties and civil rights by all the citizens. Civil laws should treat all the
individuals equally.
Political Equality:
By Political Equality we mean equal access of everyone to the avenues of political
authority. All citizens must possess similar political rights, they should have similar
voice in the working of the government and they should have equal opportunities to
actively participate in the political life and affairs of the country.
Economic Equality:
Economic Equality is closely related to political equality. Professor Laski underlies the
great significance of economic equality. “Political equality is therefore, never real unless
it is accompanied with virtual economic liberty; political power otherwise is bound to
be the hand-maid of economic power”.
Features:
1. Equality does not stand for absolute equality. It accepts the presence of some natural
inequalities.
2. Equality stands for absence of all unnatural man- made inequalities and specially
privileged classes in the society.
3. Equality postulates the grant and guarantee of equal rights and freedoms to all the
people.
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4. Equality implies the system of equal and adequate opportunities for all the people in
society.
5. Equality means equal satisfaction of basic needs of all the persons before the special
needs’, and luxuries of some persons may be met.
6. Equality advocates an equitable and fair distribution of wealth and resources i.e.
Minimum possible gap between the rich and poor.
Justice:
The word Justice, the Latin equivalent is ‘justum’ from the word ‘Jussum’, which means
that which has been ordered. From its origin, justice has concerned both fair dealing
and righteousness. In Law, justice is the sum principles and rules that ought to be
followed. Hence, a system of Law is also called a system of justice.
The notion justice is as old as the Platonic form of Justice. Plato in his book ‘Republic’
defined justice as the harmonious order between different elements of the soul, or
between classes of society. Aristotle’s distinction between distributive justice and
rectificatory justice is still of fundamental importance. Since seeking justice involves
social order and stability, justice has been a central topic in moral political philosophy.
Therefore Justice as we have seen is the most important and most discussed objective of
the State, and Society. It is the basis of orderly human living. Justice demands the
regulation of selfish actions of people for securing a fair distribution, equal treatment of
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equals, and proportionate and just rewards for all. It stands for harmony between
individual interests and the interests of society.
In Modern time it has been widely discussed by John Rawls, Friedrich Von Hayek,
Robert Nozich, and Jacques Derrida significantly. John Rawls in His book ‘A Theory of
Justice’ defines Justice as Fairness which is primarily based on two principles i.e.
Liberty and Equality. According to him, justice as fairness requires that all primary
social goods be distributed equally. Justice for Rawls should be understood as that
which would emerge out of from people’s agreement.
Friedrich Von Hayek in book ‘The Road to Serfdom’, defines the very idea of justice is a
‘mirage’, or a kind of confusion that philosophers call a ‘category mistake’. Justice is an
attribute of action, a predicate of agents. A person acts justly when she undertakes a just
action.
According to Robert Nozick justice is not about a agreement of fair principles by the
people as far as Rawls was concerned, rather it is about respecting individual’s right to
self-ownership and their right to hold property, leaving them free to decide for
themselves what they do with what is theirs.
3. Justice is related to all aspects of human behaviour in society. Laws are made and
courts are set up with this aim in view.
4. Aim of Justice is to provide equal rights, opportunities and facilities to all in a fair
way.
6. Justices is a primary value and it is inseparably related to other values like Liberty,
Equality and Property.
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7. Justice is the principle of balancing or reconciling human relations in society in such a
way as enables each one to get his due rights, towards and punishments.
8. Justice has several dimensions: Social Justice, Economic Justice, Political Justice and
Legal Justice.
Types of Justice:
1. Social Justice:
In contemporary times a large number of scholars use prefer to describe the concept of
Justice as Social Justice. Social Justice is taken to mean that all the people in a society are
to be equal and there is be no discrimination on the basis of religion, caste, creed,
colour, sex or status.
2. Economic Justice:
Economic Justice is indeed closely related to social justice because economic system is
always an integral part of the social system. Economic rights and opportunities
available to an individual are always a part of the entire social system.
3. Political Justice:
Political justice means giving equal political rights and opportunities to all citizens to
take part in the administration of the country. Citizens should have the right to vote
without any discrimination on the basis of religion, colour, caste, creed, sex, birth or
status. Every citizen should have an equal right to vote and to contest elections.