ABSTRACT
The administration of justice is among the oldest of public services. Initially this mainly concerned the resolution of conflicts between individuals and between individuals and organizations or institutions. In Western welfare democracies, justice involves much more than mere adjudication. Niebuhr's suggestion that man's inclination to injustice necessitates democracy (see quotation above) not only refers to justice, the modern-but limited-sense of equality before the law and individual responsibility, but also hints at the egalitarian principle of social justice and collective responsibility in the context of the welfare state. In Western welfare states, justice in the limited sense concerns the passing of judgment, while in the extended sense it includes care for the weak and the oppressed. Social justice rests upon equity and, more specifically, upon "the correction of existing imbalances in the distribution of social and political values" (Denhardt 1984, 112). It is in equity that governments seek to create greater benefits from public programs for the most disadvantaged.
