Il filosofo ed economista britannico Daniel Chandler discute su Jacobin di come le idee di John Rawls possono tornare di attualità oggi. Rawls fu un filosofo statunitense, noto soprattutto per i suoi studi sulla giustizia. La sua idea più nota è quella del “velo d’ignoranza”, un esperimento mentale che richiede di ipotizzare una società giusta, senza sapere però in anticipo che posizione ricopriremo in essa. Rawls pensava che in quest’ottica si potesse legittimare la tutela delle libertà individuali, e che le uniche disuguaglianze economiche che si potessero giustificare fossero quelle che, in ultima analisi, andavano davvero a beneficio di tutti e non di pochi.

Secondo Chandler, che ha scritto un libro su Rawls, le sue idee permettono di superare la crisi della liberaldemocrazia che vediamo oggi, e di combattere l’autoritarismo tenendo assieme la tutela della libertà con la ricerca dell’uguaglianza e del benessere diffuso.

As the title of my book suggests, a just society needs to recognize the importance of freedom and equality, and Rawls’s principles are a way of working out how these values can fit together: which freedoms matter most, and how much and what kind of equality we should be aiming for. While liberal freedoms give us the space to pursue our own ideas about how we want to live, the value of those freedoms and the extent to which we can pursue our dreams depends in large part on our access to material resources. Any serious political philosophy must take both into account.

Non si tratta solo di petizioni di principio: per attuare il programma rawlsiano, Chandler propone alcune soluzioni concrete, come finanziare i partiti attraverso voucher personali di uguale valore per tutti (in modo da ridurre l’influenza politica dei più ricchi), o la cogestione delle grandi aziende. Si tratta comunque di tornare ad avere una prospettiva di ampio respiro, intellettualmente coerente, che possa ispirare i partiti progressisti di massa.

I think there is reason to hope we could make significant progress in the right direction. That’s partly because of the historical moment we are in with the exhaustion of neoliberalism, and the once-in-a-generation opportunity that has created to craft a new political and economic consensus.

I also think that these ideas can help mainstream center-left parties like the Democrats and the UK Labour Party — which, however imperfect, are the most likely vehicle for progressive change — overcome some of the electoral obstacles they face. For a start, they offer a unifying alternative to more divisive forms of “identity politics,” as well as a commitment to mutual respect that can help to defuse the culture wars. To be clear, this isn’t about downgrading questions of race, sexuality, gender, the environment, and so on. These are fundamental issues of justice that should be at the heart of progressive politics. Rather, we need to connect these struggles to universal values, and to build solidarity between groups with different priorities.

At the same time, they can help progressive parties to win back lower-income and less-educated voters who have been deserting them in recent years. We know this has been driven in large part by the embrace of more right-leaning economic policies. Rawls’s ideas point toward a bold economic agenda that would address the long-neglected concerns of lower-income voters, not simply for higher incomes, but for a sense of independence, meaning, and social recognition. And they would do so in a way that appeals to widely shared notions of fairness, freedom and equality, and a tradition with deep roots in the United States’ political history and culture.