RBSE Class 12 Political Science Notes Chapter 1 Justice

Rajasthan Board RBSE Class 12 Political Science Notes Chapter 1 Justice

  • The concept of justice has been an important subject of political thought since ancient times.
  • Justice is a broad, concept. The spirit of justice works to bind people in discipline so that while respecting others’ right, they might be devoted to their own duties as well.
  • In Indian and Western political thoughts, the concept of justice has been given an important place.
  • Many Western thinkers – Pluto, Aristotle, Augustine, Equinass, Hobbs, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill etc. have defined justice in different forms.
  • Indian thinkers, such as Manu, Kautilya, Vrihaspati, Shukra, Bhardwaj, Vidur, Somdev, etc. have provided an important place to justice in state management.
  • In Western political philosophy, the analysis of justice was first of all, done by Great Philosopher Pluto. Pluto has considered justice an intrinsic quality of a state.

Plato’s Concept Of Justice:

  • The main idea of Plato’s thought was the concept of justice.
  • According to Plato, justice means not to interfere into others’ task.
  • Plato has analyzed justice in his book “Republic” as an ethical principle.
  • According to Plato, there are two forms of justice
    • Personal Justice
    • Social Justice.
  • According to Plato, three elements are found in the human soul- desire, bravery and intelligence.
  • According to these three elements he establishes three classes in the state and society-
    • Ruler or guardian class,
    • Soldier class or the defender class,
    • Producers or auxiliary class.

Aristotle’s Concept of Justice:

  • Aristotle was a disciple of Pluto. According to him, Justice is related to the regularization of human relations.
  • As per the belief of Aristotle, there becomes an existence of a state only because of concept of justice in human psyche.
  • He presented two forms of justice :
    • Distributive or political justice,
    • Corrective or Rectificatory justice.
  • According to the concept of distributive or political justice, benefit and responsibility should be proportionate to capacity and capability of an individual.
  • In corrective justice, it is the responsibility of the state that it protects life, property, honor and liberty of an individual.

The Concept of Justice in Medieval Period:

  • According to Augustine, justice has been considered as an important and indispensable element in the theory of Divine State.
  • In his book “The City of God”, obedience by an individual towards divine state is justice.The Concept of Justice in Modern Period
  • According to David Hume – justice means only to obey the rules or laws because the experience has proved it as the basis of the welfare of all.
  • Bentham supported the principle of “maximum happiness for maximum people,” while advocating appropriateness of justice.
  • According to J.S. Mill, justice is the most important principle of social utility.

The Concept of Justice of John Rawls:

  • John Rawls has analyzed social justice in his book “A Theory Of Justice”, in modem perspective,
  • He established two fundamental moral principles of justice in constitutional democracy.
    • Maximum freedom is necessary for the protection of freedom itself.
    • Person and State should establish such economic and social conditions which are for the welfare of all.

Justice In Indian Political Thought:

  • Justice has been given a special place and importance in Indian Politician thought. This concept is the fundamental principle or reconciliation of our social system.
  • Manu, Kautilya, Vrihaspati, Shukra have termed justice a soul in the state system.
  • Both Manu and Kautilya have considered the fairness of justice as the basic tendency of the state system.

Different Types Of Justice:

  • Diverse versions of the concept of justice are :
    • Ethical Justice,
    • Legal justice,
    • Political Justice,
    • Social Justice,
    • Economic Justice.
  • Moral Justice : This type of justice is based on morality. We must live our lives based on the perspective of natural laws and natural right.
  • Legal justice : It is also called political justice. This concept of legal justice emphasizes on two things
    • The laws made by the government must be justified
    • Such laws should be implemented by the government with full justice.
  • Political justice : It indicates about the equality. It rejects the concept of discrimination and in equality. It provides Adult suffrage, freedom of speech, views and expression without any discrimination.
  • Social justice : It indicates about the social system with no social discrimination between individuals on the basis of social status.
  • Economic justice : Economic justice condemns the discrimination between the individuals on the basis of wealth and emphasizes the need to reduce the gap between the poor and the rich of the society.

RBSE Class 12 Political Science Notes Chapter 1 Important Terms

  • Justice: According to both the traditions and conventions- Western and Indian, to perform designated duties and not to interfere in the doings of others is justice.
  • Religion : Religion implies for obeyance of duty. This is a fundamental base of society.
  • Equality : Equality refers to conditions/circumstances wherein all have equal opportunity to develop their existence. Besides, efforts are made to end the unequalities causing social oddities.
  • Liberty : Lack of external restrictions on an individual is called liberty. In other words, liberty is a situation, wherein there is no unnecessary restriction and a person gets full opportunity to develop his capabilities.
  • Rights : Rights are such claims having sanction of society and the state protects them.
  • Social Justice : It is such a state of situation wherein all classes/sections of the society get equal opportunity and there is no discrimination of any kind.
  • Political Justice : Political justice implies partnership of the people in the affairs of a state. On the basis of adulthood, all the persons have right to cast vote, equal opportunity to hold government posts and right to take part in election.
  • State : State is a political organisation which controls, arranges and coordinate different organs of social life.
  • Reformative Justice : It is such a justice which emphasises on curbing any abuses of human rights by other persons.
  • Dictatorship : It is a kind of governance, wherein the ruler is autocratic. Under this rule of governance, rights and liberties of an individual are not taken care of.
  • Moral Justice : When the behaviour of persons is ethical, then it is called moral justice.
  • Legal Justice : All those rules and laws which are naturally followed by an individual are called legal justice.
  • Economic Justice : Economic justice refers to the liberty to every person to improve his status of life and his economic condition.
  • Plato : He was a Greek philosopher and political thinker. He expressed views with regard to justice, ideal state, education etc.
  • John Stuart Mill : Mill is one of the last supporters of utilitarianism and a great thinker of individualism. As per his convention utilitarianism is basic dogma of justice.
  • Kautilya : He is also known by the names – Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta. He has written a famous book on Arthashastra (Economics), which has elaborate details of management of governance.
  • Karl Marx : German thinker, Karl Marx is called father of ‘Scientific Socialism’. His book ‘Das Capital’ is regarded as Bible of communism.

RBSE Class 12 Political Science Notes