Conclusion to Neoliberal Social Justice

Rawlsian approaches to public policy have often measured the failings of real-world regimes against the successes of theorised alternatives. These alternatives have proved unstable in practice (liberal socialism) or have never been instantiated according to their proponents (property-owning democracy). To know whether these alternatives are truly superior, we need to consider their likely results when facing realistic challenges to social cooperation. Adopting the robust political economy approach, I suggest that the two key challenges to cooperation are knowledge and incentive problems. In the amelioration of these challenges, the familiar institutions of liberal democracy and capitalism are likely to be better performers than the theoretical alternatives. Nevertheless, there are better ways for existing liberal democracies to pursue social and material equality. My case does not deal with global justice and the costs of rule enforcement, but robust political economy is well-positioned to engage with these challenges as well.