Politicising Europe's justice deficit: some preliminaries

Wilkinson, Michael (2014) Politicising Europe's justice deficit: some preliminaries. Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series. London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

Normative political theory is divided on whether questions of distributive justice properly extend beyond the state. From a functionalist perspective, however, justice reflects a balance of material forces, subject to the logics of ‘market’ and ‘social’ justice, or ‘capitalism’ and ‘democracy’. The justice ‘deficit’ is the imbalance or disequilibrium in these logics, an imbalance which the constitution of the post-war European state stabilises through their constraint. European integration, initially an important feature of this post-war settlement, now increasingly comes to be viewed as a significant threat to it. Whereas market logic and capital have been rapidly supra-nationalised, social-democratic logic has struggled to transcend the state, the EU, in particular, lacking the channels of contestation to legitimise redistribution. This leads to an imbalance in the forces of capitalism and democracy, a justice ‘deficit’, which destabilizes national as well as supranational institutions, but also leads to questions being asked of what Germans owe Greeks, or vice versa. The justice deficit and reaction to it now appear to be threatening core features of state sovereignty. But it also suggests that the logic of the state - and the question: to whom are obligations owed? - must itself be subject to contestation; the dilemma of market and social justice, or capitalism and democracy, must be replaced with a trilemma, of market, social and democratic justice.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL:	http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law/wps/wps1.htm
Additional Information:	© 2014 The Author, London School of Economics and Political Science
Divisions:	Law
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory J Political Science > JC Political theory J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) K Law > K Law (General)
Date Deposited:	24 Feb 2014 12:38
Last Modified:	15 Sep 2023 23:31
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/55831

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