Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations for Rawls’s texts
- Introduction
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- S
- 195 Sandel, Michael
- 196 Scanlon, T. M.
- 197 Self-interest
- 198 Self-respect
- 199 Sen, Amartya
- 200 Sense of justice
- 201 Sidgwick, Henry
- 202 Sin
- 203 Social choice theory
- 204 Social contract
- 205 Social minimum
- 206 Social union
- 207 Socialism
- 208 Society of peoples
- 209 Soper, Philip
- 210 Sovereignty
- 211 Stability
- 212 Statesman and duty of statesmanship
- 213 Strains of commitment
- 214 Supreme Court and judicial review
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
205 - Social minimum
from S
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations for Rawls’s texts
- Introduction
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- S
- 195 Sandel, Michael
- 196 Scanlon, T. M.
- 197 Self-interest
- 198 Self-respect
- 199 Sen, Amartya
- 200 Sense of justice
- 201 Sidgwick, Henry
- 202 Sin
- 203 Social choice theory
- 204 Social contract
- 205 Social minimum
- 206 Social union
- 207 Socialism
- 208 Society of peoples
- 209 Soper, Philip
- 210 Sovereignty
- 211 Stability
- 212 Statesman and duty of statesmanship
- 213 Strains of commitment
- 214 Supreme Court and judicial review
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The social minimum is designed to ensure that no one unwillingly falls below a minimum level of well-being. In TJ Rawls assigned to the transfer branch of government the responsibility for ensuring that “the claims of need” are satisfied (TJ 243–244). Rawls suggests that the social minimum could be fulfilled by, e.g., family allowances, unemployment insurance, or a graded income supplement. In PL he endorses Rodney Peffer’s argument for a basic needs principle, lexically prior to the first principle, requiring that “citizens’ basic needs be met, at least insofar as their being met is necessary for citizens to understand and to be able fruitfully to exercise those rights and liberties” (PL 7; JF 44; cf. Peffer 1990). But Rawls rejects Philippe van Parijs’s argument that a social minimum should be guaranteed to everyone regardless of ability to work, arguing instead that “those who would surf off Malibumust ind a way to support themselves and would not be entitled to public funds” (PL 181–182; cf. van Parijs 1991). The idea of basic needs appears also in LP where Rawls says that decent societies, which enjoy the right of noninterference, guarantee that basic needs are met. Failure to satisfy basic needs may give rise, on the part of other peoples, to the duty of assistance (LP 37–38).
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- Information
- The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon , pp. 785 - 787Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014