Rawls Theory of Justice:

John Rawls has a deep faith in the democratic process.  At the heart of his book A Theory of Justice, Rawls' faith in the goodness of  people to create a fair system of justice exists.  He considers a hypothetical situation where a group of people meets to workout a   fair social system.  Judgments on the basis of sex, race, wealth and attributes may bias unfairly to place individuals within a social  system.  According to Rawls life is a game of chance where nature displays attributes leading towards inequity in the social system. 

We cannot blame nature for it but there must be the formation of a social system comprising social institutions to mitigate the impact  of the natural distribution moving towards inequity in the social system. No one should be advantaged or disadvantaged by natural  fortune or social circumstances in the choice of principles.  He suggests a "veil of ignorance" to allow the group to enter into a social contract totally without prejudice.

In accordance with Rawls argument in a society every person is interested for "primary goods". To put it briefly, the good is the  satisfaction of rationale desire. These public primary goods include many things such as rights, liberties, powers, income and wealth.

Rawls concludes with two principles:

1) Equal basic liberties principle states that each person has an equal right to a fully adequate scheme of equal basic liberties, which  is compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for all.

2) Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions:

a) Inequities must be attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity; (fair equality of opportunity principle).

b) When inequities exist due to some social necessity, they must be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged members of  society (difference principle).

The Theory of Justice gives importance for funding of schools by the government. The government should insure equal chances of  education and culture for persons similarly endowed and motivated either by subsidizing private schools or by establishing a public  school system. Rawls has mentioned about institutions and democracy in an abstract manner.  He has given importance to the mobilization of resources necessary to educate all to their highest potential in the society.  It implies that the quality of education in  a society depends on the availability of resources for it.  To maintain democratic values civic education in a democracy is vital.  A just institution recognizes the worth and contribution of each individual.  So too, should the school in structure and policy be organised democratically.

Private property including the right to own land is one of the possible freedoms that Rawls allow in his system.  But the right to own  land means to include the right to exclude trespassers, and this in turn would conflict with the right of free movement. The original  position when people pass through the veil of ignorance does not seem to contain enough information to allow one to sort out the  priority of difference liberties.

Rawls' distributional criterion is to maximize the welfare of the worst off individual in the society. According to Rawls' this is the just  and ethical position that all would choose in the original position.  It is to this end that governmental re-distributive activity, based on collective will be directed.