Economic Freedom and Social Equality in the Theory of Justice: An Examination of a Sustainable Liberal Model for the Post-Ar

This paper investigates the nature of freedom, equality, and dignity as values that serve as the founding blocks of the theory of justice. Throughout ancient and modern history, these values have intersected and interacted with each other. An awareness of these essential values began to take root in the Arab world—particularly among political factions—following the Arab Spring. While learning through praxis has permitted the integration of these values, the ongoing revolutions are incapable of theorizing their complex intellectual dimensions or inducing an epistemic localization of these values in Arab countries because of the absence of normative approaches that link the ongoing social and political movements to future economic and social priorities. This can be achieved through normative approaches that critique the thin veneer of Neoclassical orthodoxy, which is the basis that underpins neoliberal policies; these approaches should also question the nature of the social and democratic dimension of the economy, especially in terms of the Rawlsian theory of “justice as fairness”. The paper further argues that the theory of justice in the sustainable liberal model involves a substantive form of freedom, including individual freedoms that guarantee equal opportunity as a fundamental element of social equality. This can lead to a compatibility between economic freedom and social equality by linking the distribution of value processes to the production of value processes; this compatibility can be guaranteed and made sustainable through the emergence of social integration and solidarity as a long-term theory of coexistence.

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This paper investigates the nature of freedom, equality, and dignity as values that serve as the founding blocks of the theory of justice. Throughout ancient and modern history, these values have intersected and interacted with each other. An awareness of these essential values began to take root in the Arab world—particularly among political factions—following the Arab Spring. While learning through praxis has permitted the integration of these values, the ongoing revolutions are incapable of theorizing their complex intellectual dimensions or inducing an epistemic localization of these values in Arab countries because of the absence of normative approaches that link the ongoing social and political movements to future economic and social priorities. This can be achieved through normative approaches that critique the thin veneer of Neoclassical orthodoxy, which is the basis that underpins neoliberal policies; these approaches should also question the nature of the social and democratic dimension of the economy, especially in terms of the Rawlsian theory of “justice as fairness”. The paper further argues that the theory of justice in the sustainable liberal model involves a substantive form of freedom, including individual freedoms that guarantee equal opportunity as a fundamental element of social equality. This can lead to a compatibility between economic freedom and social equality by linking the distribution of value processes to the production of value processes; this compatibility can be guaranteed and made sustainable through the emergence of social integration and solidarity as a long-term theory of coexistence.

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