ABSTRACT
In Political Liberalism, John Rawls develops further his "political conception of justice"—one that is for "the main institutions of political and social life, not for the whole of life". In Theory, Rawls included "the monogamous family" as part of the basic structure. Rawls notes the desirability of congruence—or at least the absence of conflict—between the values held by citizens in the other, nonpolitical, parts of their lives, and the values inherent in their political conception of justice. Rawls also says that, unlike a well-ordered society itself, associations within it can offer "different terms" to their members, depending on the associations' ends and the members' potential contributions to them. The author argues that in Justice, Gender, and the Family it is difficult to see how families that are not themselves regulated by principles of justice and fairness could play a positive role in the moral education of the citizens of a just society.
