The Politics of Social Justice - Not offered in AY 2022-23

This course gives an overview of normative theories of justice as well as their political application. The main aim of the course is to familiarize students with classical debates on the principles of distribution of basic rights and entitlements. The course introduces students into classical justice theories from the ancient Greece, early modern theories as well as contemporary debates. The main emphasis will be on the normative implications of utilitarian, contractualist and libertarian normative justice theories. In order to go beyond and complement the strictly normative theoretical perspectives, the course will use case studies to demonstrate the practical policy implications of different theories of justice. Throughout the course, we will explore how, when and why normative social justice arguments are used in actual political debates.