Social Justice as a Category in Political Science Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to determine an objective definition of social justice as a category in political science. The author draws attention to the fact that since the times of ancient Greece, this has been a central concept accompanying in–depth analyses of politics. Making references to classical approaches, the author tries to determine the main formal elements common in publicly postulated interpretations. The concept proposed by the author relies on differentiation between two perspectives on the idea as part of a discursive understanding of politics. Within this framework, solely integration of distribution and recognition allows for capturing the phenomenon of overlapping economic inequalities and hierarchical status orders in societies. Both mechanisms are united by the fact that the starting point for implementing the principles of social justice is the sanctioning of equal moral significance to every member of a political community.