What the report covers

The assignment title points to Rawls in a debate about liberty and equality. The honest way to write it is to present justice as fairness from Rawls's own books, not to paste a general essay on capitalism and then attach his name.

Some Korean source material for this item discusses equality and welfare spending in terms that include unsourced international rankings. Those rankings are not repeated here as fact.

The original position and the two principles

Parties in the original position do not know their class, sex, or talents. They would, Rawls argues, choose equal basic liberties first, then a principle that leftover inequalities must be justifiable to those who are least advantaged, against a background of fair equality of opportunity.

Liberty and equality are not a slogan to pick one side of. The first principle protects liberties of conscience, association, and the person; the second principle is about the structure of social and economic inequality.

What the theory is not

It is not a demand that every outcome be equal, and it is not a defense of an unregulated market. It is a standard for the basic structure of a society. Later work in Political Liberalism asks how this can be stable among citizens who disagree about religion and the good.

A student paper can take one policy area — education, tax, or health — and ask how the two principles would frame it.

How to keep the references honest

Cite A Theory of Justice or the 2001 restatement for the principles. If you compare countries, use a named official series and the year of the table. Do not let a rhetorical ending replace the argument.

Sources

1. Rawls, J. (1971/1999). A theory of justice(rev. ed.). Harvard University Press.
2. Rawls, J. (1993). Political liberalism. Columbia University Press.
3. Rawls, J. (2001). Justice as fairness: A restatement. Harvard University Press.

Last updated: November 13, 2026

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