ABSTRACT
This chapter considers, in an exploratory spirit, the possibility that Rawls has all along been following a single, abstract "constructive" method, which begins from existing social practices. It argues that the kind of "status quo bias", toward those that happen to participate in a practice, is a serious flaw in Rawls's domestic theory. The chapter explains in due course, insofar as there is a potentially significant concern of status quo bias, it is not this concern but the first, more fundamental concern with existing practices. It suggests that there is little reason, short of overall assessment of Rawlsian justice, why beginning from existing practices manifests any obvious and objectionable form of bias. Rawls's focus on existing practices in his later work could be viewed as a departure from his considered view about justice as such, as expressed in A Theory of Justice.
