Just Democracy The Rawls-Machiavelli Programme

Philippe Van Parijs is one of the world's leading political philosophers. In this book, he argues that the purpose of democracy should be to promote justice - we need not just democracy (in the sense of unqualified democracy) but a just democracy. Machiavelli and Rawls must be brought together. In a series of provocative and timely essays, he explores what creating such a just democratic political system would involve in order to tackle such issues as intergenerational justice, multiculturalism and linguistic diversity. He illustrates his arguments with examples drawn from the European Union and his native Belgium.

Philippe Van Parijs holds doctorates in philosophy (Oxford) and the social sciences (Louvain). He is professor at the Universite of Louvain, where he directs the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics since its creation in 1991. He has been a regular visiting professor at Harvard University and at the University of Leuven, and has held visiting positions at many other institutions around the world. His books include Evolutionary Explanation in the Social Sciences(1981), Marxism Recycled (1993), Real Freedom for All (1995), Whats Wrong with a Free Lunch? (2000) and Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World(2011).