The Role of Rawls in the Development of a Democratic Socialist Regime

Julio Harto: A political arrangement that severely curtailed existing property rights in the U.S. would not necessarily represent a repudiation of political liberalism. John Rawls, widely regarded as both the most important contemporary theorist of political liberalism and the 20th centuries, denies the existence of a basic right to private property for natural resources or the means of production. One democratic socialist actually cites Rawls by way of arguing for liberal socialism. In the end, however, Rawls or his version of liberalism proves less helpful than one might think in grounding a democratic socialism.