The Deliberative Democrat’s Idea of Justice

In his recent book The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen has made democracy central to his theory of justice. If he is right, then justice is in practice going to be hard to come by without democracy. Yet as it stands Sen’s treatment of democracy is inadequate, which means that, given its key role in his approach, his treatment of justice is less than fully adequate too. This paper is one deliberative democrat’s attempt to put the democracy in justice on a firmer footing. The end result should support rather than undermine Sen’s essential project. Some principles are developed that can be applied to the analysis, evaluation, and perhaps design of forums and – more importantly – deliberative systems in all the particular contexts, from the local to the global, where justice needs to be deliberated to be achieved.