Moral and Political Justice essays

Moral and Political Justice essays Affirmative action is the nations most ambitious attempt to redress its long history of racial and sexual discrimination. Born of the civil rights movement three decades ago, the policy calls for minorities to be given special consideration in employment, education, and contracting decisions. Institutions with affirmative action policies generally set goals and timetables for increased diversity and use recruitment, set-asides and preference as ways of achieving those goals. Affirmative action is undoubtedly an issue of justice. From this point forward well define justice as it is found in Merriam-Webster: the maintenance and administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims; the assignment of merited rewards or punishments. Furthermore, for the issue to be thoroughly understood we must approach it from both a moral and political perspective. What does it mean to be morally just... politically just? The discrepancy in definition will inevitably be displayed in their determination on the issue. The term moral justice suggests an abstract, idealistic system which bases its rulings on a universal code of morality and ethics. To be moral is to conform to a standard of right behavior, always operating with ethical judgment. One would think this to be a faultless system. Political justice, on the other hand, seems more realistically applicable in human society. Every system of justice is created with the same primary intent- to uphold a nations standard of living. We are granted rights as humans and citizens and are prohibited from inflicting on others rights. This must be the foundation of any system. While moral justice remains consistent and uncompromising, political justice is dependent upon government rule and socio-economic factors. In countries where there exists an oligarchy or dictatorship, justice can be misconstrued to mean whatever proves to be ben ...