Justice, recognition and participation

Abstract

Philosophical theories of justice tend to view justice either as questions of recognition or as questions of redistribution. In order to become “neutral” among the plurality of the good life in modern democratic societies, liberal theories have been limited to redistribution. According to Nancy Fraser, the most general meaning of justice is parity of participation. Equal opportunities to participation presupposes just redistribution as well as and recognition of culture, gender and sexual preferences. She proposes a conception of recognition, not linked to the idea of identity politics, but to a concept of status. Fraser has delivered a theory of justice that makes it possible to decide whether claims of recognition are legitimate or not. If claims for recognition are justified in a conception of justice that is agreeable from a common public perspective, a liberal theory does not need be restricted to distributive justice.