ABSTRACT
Although there are different sorts of entities that we may properly call just or unjust-people, contracts, punishments, or rules, to give just a few examples-Rawls is clear that the primary subject of his theory of justice is what he calls “the basic structure of society.”1 This basic structure can be thought of as the structure of a complex whole, made up of the set of major social institutions as they function together as a system, distributing rights and duties, as well as other benefits and burdens of social cooperation, among citizens. Rawls suggests that in order to assess whether and to what degree a society is just, one should not look at the workings of particular social institutions in isolation, or at the individual behavior of its citizens. Rather, one should focus on the ways in which the major social institutions interact in one large scheme. It is true that a close examination of one major social institution, such as the legal system, may provide us with significant information as we seek to establish how just a society is overall. But a better way to evaluate the level of justice of a society requires us to look at the operation of all the major social institutions taken together as an integrated whole. One reason to take this more comprehensive view is that a certain level of injustice in one type of major social institution might be mitigated (or aggravated) by the workings of the others. Not all social institutions count as part of the basic structure for Rawls.
As examples of institutions that belong to the basic structure he cites “the political constitution, the legally recognized forms of property, and the organization of the economy, and the nature of the family.”2 These institutions can themselves be understood as public systems of rules: rules that define a set of offices and positions and that assign the rights and duties that attach to each of them.3 According to Rawls, the institutions that belong to the basic structure have a deep and pervasive effect, not only on the lives and future prospects of all citizens, but also on their characters, aims, and aspirations. These institutions are central to social life and necessary for the continued existence of society. The basic structure shapes the way a society “produces and reproduces over time a certain form of culture shared by
persons with certain conceptions of their good.”4 Although Rawls does not mention schools when he offers his list of major social institutions, his characterization of the basic structure suggests that the educational system should also be counted as a part of it. One reason for this is the obvious role schools play in the reproduction of a society’s culture among its youngest members. Another reason is that access to different levels of education reliably affect the life prospects of children (for example, their access to desirable jobs and a good income).5
