ABSTRACT
The ambition of this chapter is to explore crucial moments in the genealogy of the diminishing role of justice in politics and political theory and how this is connected to changing conceptions of society. Whereas in classical and medieval political thought the principal virtue of good government was to rule according to “reason and justice”, in the modern period justice has largely been excluded – factored out – from the domain of politics and has become the almost exclusive domain of judicial institutions. Although this is an extended process, the critical moment occurs during the sixteenth century, at least conceptually. Historian of political theory Maurizio Viroli has fittingly described this moment in terms of a “revolution in politics” (rather than a political revolution) during which the conceptual language and theory of politics went through a radical change. 1 There are of course significant differences between different countries, and there have been recurring attempts to resuscitate the role of justice in politics and political theory, and in both America and Europe the notion of “social justice” is still brandished in political rhetoric. 2 Nevertheless, in political theory the figure of justice has become a lonely and isolated one, no longer playing the central role it once did.
