Justice is one of the pillars of our life and government. We use it in various ways loosely meaning various aspects. We talk about economic justice, police and lawyers are in the field of criminal justice. Even in our life we use this term though not quite intentionally. When kids fight in the ground or someone gets lower grades than he deserved we use this term to put forth our point of injustice. Justice can have many shades like it can be about equality, fairness, getting what we need or what we deserve.
The ancient Greeks used it to mean harmony- a just society where everyone performed their role so that the society would run smoothly. So it was considered unjust if you violated your place in the social order. Justice can be utilitarian also where justice meant that that the society worked to make the quality of life of everyone better. For some it meant that its people are maximally free.
So what is justice actually, is it to buy somebody his meal, or send a criminal to jail or is it giving out rewards and punishment on the basis of merit. We talk about justice because it is one of the more fundamental moral and social principles in our lives. To each individual justice defines how the society should work based on his definition.
In a society who decides who should get how much and on what basis. This concept of distributive justice has many different schools of thought. For some it is justice as equality that is everyone should get everything in equal proportion. But is it true justice as someone may want or need more than others. This leads to need based justice that is everyone’s needs are different so everyone should not get the same. Some say about merit based justice where people should get what they deserve and not necessarily an equitable distribution. Then there is justice of fairness which says that everyone should get enough to cover his basic needs at least. Some argue that we cannot or rather we should not disturb the naturally uneven playing ground. They say that they are entitled to the stuff they have provided they have not stolen it or obtained it unjustly.
So we see here that there is a lot of disagreement about what should be the justified distribution and our political system has a role in it. People who believe in the essential human rights argue that people should have their basic needs fulfilled b the government. But there are people who think that it is not the government’s duty to fulfill the basic needs and rather we should do it ourselves. This is something called negative rights, it means that I will not prevent you from fulfilling your need but I will also not help you in fulfilling your needs. A positive right would be that if you are need of some help like getting a doctor then you should get it even if you cannot afford it. This is what governments do; they take taxes from those having more and to help those who have less. So people are actually talking about justice when they talk about healthcare, income inequality and taxes.
Justice is also about punishment. We disagree about the most appropriate way to respond to wrongdoing. The retributive justice says that a wrongdoer should suffer in proportion to what he has made others to suffer. In other words the old days an eye for an eye justice. But now we rely more on fines and jail rather than the tit for tat. Utilitarian’s have another view- they are in favor of welfare maximization than making people suffer. One option suggested is rehabilitation where so that these people are taught how to get along in a society and follow its rules. The focus is on therapy and education. Others counter it by saying that it means that the wrongdoers are in need of help to be cured from some sort of social disease. Punishment is viewed as a way to deter someone to commit crime and also deter others from doing it. Then there is restorative justice, here rather than punishing and making him suffer the focus is on amending. This is the concept behind community service. It is about forgiveness and restoration, which is opposite to retributive justice.
We should think about these as it will influence your vote, how you treat your child’s mistakes and also how you spend money. This might lead to a change of your views.
Justice is very important for people. Everyone wants to be treated fairly. It begins in childhood. Children quickly notice when they are treated unfairly and take action to prevent it.