Principles of Justice in a Changing World Order

Abstract

During its revival in the 20th century political philosophy established its own foundation and methods based upon a free and democratic society which is stable but not sufficiently just and fair. Some scholars can even envisage the control of human luck to achieve a more complete fairness of opportunities. Non-liberal democracies, or the so-called “decent people” in Rawls’s theory, often fall outside the mainstream of political philosophy. However, at present, regional cooperation of various free-trade agreements in the world have resulted in the relations between countries becoming ever closer. In this increasingly close cooperation between liberal and non-liberal democracies, on the one hand differences and disputes on politics and social institutions have been temporarily laid aside because of the relationship of economic cooperation while on the other hand, conflicts and confrontations have been introduced at the economic level. New free-trade-zone agreements such as the TPP include some political and social provisions illustrating how the close economic cooperation also results in requirements for political and social improvement. Although political philosophy is based on the principle of domestic justice, Rawls’s rules are still basically effective Nonetheless, a comparative domestic political philosophy would do better to become a new field of political philosophy. In terms of methods, the traditional paths of mainstream international political philosophy are theoretical construction and conceptual analysis, including thought experiments and ideal design. To a large extent, it does not take the actual world order, international political relations and international reality into account. Political competition and struggles and changes in world trends and powers are also outside its scope. This disconnection has had several results. Firstly, the basic principles or principles of justice achieved by political philosophy are usually only valid at the domestic level, or at most in quasi-federal alliances such as the European Union, and they cannot adapt to the different needs of different countries in the world. Rawls divided countries into five types in The Law