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4 Civic engagement and social justice Introduction Public policy in a variety of countries, Ireland included, has recognised the value of some level of deeper citizen participation in democratic and civic life. At the same time, civil society organisations have increasingly asserted the importance of their participation in policy-making processes. It was in this context that the Irish government clearly stated that ‘There is a need to create a more participatory democracy where active citizenship is fostered’ defining participation ‘as an exchange between
positions from which they could be obtained simply because they had less natural talent than those who succeeded. 33 For a sophisticated recent defence of this idea, see D. Miller, Principles of Social Justice (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1999), ch. 8. 34 See Rawls, A Theory of Justice
3 Exploring the meaning of social justice Introduction What is evident in any discussion on social justice is the lack of agreement on what the concept actually means. Indeed, the notions of justice, equity, equality, rights are contested in many different ways – ideologically, legally, historically, to name but a few. Inevitably this poses problems for those within public administration for whom the challenge of embracing a social justice agenda may appear bewildering and unattractive. In the first two chapters a range of challenges confronting contemporary
5 Peace via social justice and/or security Roger Mac Ginty and Paula Banerjee Introduction There are, of course, multiple approaches used by states, international organisations and others to achieve and maintain peace. Prominent among the approaches are those that prioritise security, and there are also approaches that see social justice and development as a driver of more pacific ways of dealing with human problems. While it is possible to conceive of these approaches stretched along a continuum, with pure security approaches at one end and pure social justice
7 Social justice and public administration in practice Social justice in practice Introduction Having explored some of the broader issues of social justice understanding, disposition and capacity in the last chapter, this chapter now moves on to look at a number of more specific cases, which provide some indications of how social justice is viewed within public administration. Each case study addresses a particular theme as well as exploring a specific empirical experience. Firstly, an instance of the use of agencies as a vehicle to achieve social justice
8 Towards a social justice agenda in public administration Introduction The discussions presented thus far in this book converge into a single, powerful, though insufficiently heard argument, namely, that social justice in Ireland or elsewhere cannot be achieved if the machinery of the state, the public administration system, does not explicitly place a commitment to social justice at its core. Irrespective of the strength of advocacy of civil society organisations or of the occasional impetus provided by individual political leaders, ambitions for social
6 Assessing the state of social justice in Irish public administration The state of social justice Introduction Earlier chapters have presented the various arguments put forward to justify a more active role for public administration in designing and promoting a social justice agenda. Having articulated at least some of ways in which social justice might be conceived, this chapter now turns its attention to exploring the state of social justice in Irish public administration. Inevitably, given the size and scale of the public sector, this does not take the form
5 Social justice and economic efficiency 5.1 Introduction: enter the economists Surveying the ideology of the British Left in 1933, a young economist called Hugh Gaitskell identified an important philosophical and strategic cleavage between two different types of socialist. For Marxists, he wrote, ‘the transition to socialism’ was ‘not something which can be effected by the mere appeal to reason’, being instead ‘an inevitable process of historical development’. In contrast, for the ‘mild tempered evolutionary idealists’ of ‘the British labour movement’, it was
2 The role of public administration in promoting and protecting social justice Role of public administration in social justice Introduction For some, the notion of articulating a more specific and clearly constructed role for public administration in promoting social justice is unnecessary. Arguments about the essentially unbiased and neutral role of public administration are advanced as a means of countering calls for a more activist approach in favour of social justice. Accompanying this are perspectives that locate responsibility for social justice within
No struggle for social justice that lacks a grounded understanding of how wealth is accumulated within society, and by whom, is ever likely to make more than a marginal dent in the status quo. Much work has been done over the years by academics and activists to illuminate the broad processes of wealth extraction. But a constantly watchful eye is essential if new forms of financial extraction are to be blocked, short-circuited, deflected or unsettled. So when the World Bank and other well-known enablers of wealth extraction start to organise to promote greater private-sector involvement in ‘infrastructure’, for example through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), alarm bells should start to ring. How are roads, bridges, hospitals, ports and railways being eyed up by finance? What bevels and polishes the lens through which they are viewed? How is infrastructure being transformed into an ‘asset class’ that will yield the returns now demanded by investors? Why now? What does the reconfiguration of infrastructure tell us about the vulnerabilities of capital? The challenge is not only to understand the mechanisms through which infrastructure is being reconfigured to extract wealth: equally important is to think through how activists might best respond. What oppositional strategies genuinely unsettle elite power instead of making it stronger?