La route démocratique vers la justice : justice sociale, démocratie et impartialité

Abstract

Democracy often goes with a hope for social justice. However, existing democracies are incapable of containing inequalities, make xenophobic decisions and act in an ecologically irresponsible way. Hence, this thesis tries to answer four main questions: is democracy the political regime offering the most prospects of justice? Which criterion can help us assess the justice or injustice of a society or the global order? What are the obstacles to more justice in existing democracies? How can we remedy these problems? Answering these questions, I argue in favour of an “epistemic” approach to democracy, which consists in justifying democratic institutions with regard to the quality of their expected outcomes. In order to assess this quality, I endorse the criterion of moral impartiality or the requirement not to (dis)favour anyone in the organisation of society. Then, I analyse the main obstacles to impartiality in contemporary democracies and suggest four possible reforms having the potential to improve the quality of democratic procedures: a citizenship education aiming at individual decentration and a better understanding of social reality; a randomly selected chamber of representatives with a deliberative purpose; a practice of justifying votes; an unconditional right to a sufficient income to live a decent life.

(FILO - Philosophie) -- UCL, 2017