Key Arguments

• He explicitly sets the chapter’s goal: 'to see how the two principles work out as a conception of political economy, that is, as standards by which to assess economic arrangements and policies, and their background institutions.'
• He notes that 'A doctrine of political economy must include an interpretation of the public good which is based on a conception of justice,' thereby tying economic assessment directly to a theory of justice.
• The doctrine is to 'guide the reflections of the citizen when he considers questions of economic and social policy. He is to take up the perspective of the constitutional convention or the legislative stage and ascertain how the principles of justice apply,' locating the standpoint of judgment in Rawls’s four‑stage sequence.
• He characterizes political judgment as invoking both the common good and a criterion of just distribution: 'A political opinion concerns what advances the good of the body politic as a whole and invokes some criterion for the just division of social advantages.'
• He distances his approach from utilitarian 'welfare economics' by rejecting the term 'welfare' as implicitly utilitarian—'the term “welfare” suggests that the implicit moral conception is utilitarian'—and preferring 'social choice,' signaling that his doctrine of political economy is non‑utilitarian.

Source Quotes

My aim in this chapter is to see how the two principles work out as a conception of political economy, that is, as standards by which to assess economic arrangements and policies, and their background institutions. (Welfare economics is often defined in the same way.

(Welfare economics is often defined in the same way. 135 I do not use this name because the term “welfare” suggests that the implicit moral conception is utilitarian; the phrase “social choice” is far better although I believe its connotations are still too narrow.) A doctrine of political economy must include an interpretation of the public good which is based on a conception of justice. It is to guide the reflections of the citizen when he considers questions of economic and social policy.

135 I do not use this name because the term “welfare” suggests that the implicit moral conception is utilitarian; the phrase “social choice” is far better although I believe its connotations are still too narrow.) A doctrine of political economy must include an interpretation of the public good which is based on a conception of justice. It is to guide the reflections of the citizen when he considers questions of economic and social policy. He is to take up the perspective of the constitutional convention or the legislative stage and ascertain how the principles of justice apply.

It is to guide the reflections of the citizen when he considers questions of economic and social policy. He is to take up the perspective of the constitutional convention or the legislative stage and ascertain how the principles of justice apply. A political opinion concerns what advances the good of the body politic as a whole and invokes some criterion for the just division of social advantages.

He is to take up the perspective of the constitutional convention or the legislative stage and ascertain how the principles of justice apply. A political opinion concerns what advances the good of the body politic as a whole and invokes some criterion for the just division of social advantages. From the beginning I have stressed that justice as fairness applies to the basic structure of society.

Key Concepts

• My aim in this chapter is to see how the two principles work out as a conception of political economy, that is, as standards by which to assess economic arrangements and policies, and their background institutions.
• A doctrine of political economy must include an interpretation of the public good which is based on a conception of justice.
• It is to guide the reflections of the citizen when he considers questions of economic and social policy.
• He is to take up the perspective of the constitutional convention or the legislative stage and ascertain how the principles of justice apply.
• A political opinion concerns what advances the good of the body politic as a whole and invokes some criterion for the just division of social advantages.

Context

Opening paragraph of §41, where Rawls introduces the task of Chapter V as showing how justice as fairness functions as a conception of political economy, guiding citizens’ reasoning about economic and social policy.