Summary — Issue 01 / 2004 Wolfgang Merkel and Mirko Krück: Social Justice and Democracy: Investigating the Link
		Social justice and democracy are among the central concepts of philosophy, sociology, and political science. However, theoretically and empirically these concepts are usually discussed separately. Their connections have so far barely been explored. In the present work, trends and hypotheses concerning the relationship between social justice and democracy are examined, in exploratory fashion, using a sample of 124 states outside the standard OECD world. The concept of democracy and its operationalization are – notwithstanding some methodological criticisms – based on Freedom House data. The concept of justice is derived from the theories of John Rawls and Amartya Sen. It is oriented above all towards the just (here: equal) distribution of opportunities and life-chances. This concept is operationalized by means of five dimensions: averting poverty; promoting equal opportunities by means of education; socially inclusive markets; gender equality; and provision of solidarity-based social security. The results indicate that social justice and the quality of democracy in a country reinforce one another. Correlation analysis produces a significant connection between social justice and the level of democratization. Regression analysis endorses the assumption of a causal relationship between democracy and social justice. A society becomes more socially just as civil liberties and political rights increase. The connection is confirmed also by the comparison of different regions. Generally, the more social justice, the more democracy, and the more democracy, the more social justice. To be sure, this connection is partly broken in the cases of Latin America and the Caribbean, Southern Africa, East Asia, and North Africa. The first two regions listed have been unable to convert their “democratic advantage“ into social justice, while East Asia and North Africa obviously do not need developed democracy in order to establish relatively just conditions. Apart from these exceptions democratic political regimes put social justice on the agenda sooner and implement them more effectively than autocratic regimes wish to or can.
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	© Friedrich Ebert Stiftung   net edition: malte.michel | 06/2004   Top