The Moral Basis Of Constitutional Democracy

John Rawls'political philosophy aims at offering the moral basis for a constitutional democracy society. Rawls deems that his'two principles of justice'is the most appropriate one in A Theory of Justice. However, his justification in Theory is not sufficient that the parties in the original position would be sure to rationally elect his principles. In fact, Rawls'justification is quietly arbitrary, and his exposition to the stability of his principles is not accord with the fact of pluralism in the constitutional democracy society.So, in Political Liberalism, Rawls tries to justify the moral basis of constitutional democracy by the political constructivism. He says that we can lay out a political conception of justice if we use the fundamental ideas, which have implicated in the public political culture of a democratic society. The political conception of justice being freestanding, Rawls says that overlapping consensus in citizens can come about in the fact of reasonable pluralism. Nonetheless, the justification of Rawls yet is not sufficient.The theory of public reason, which is applied to the political legitimacy, is a part of Rawls'whole theory of justice. But it is also the last form of Rawls'theory of justice. Moreover, the theory of public reason is a real legacy of Rawls'political philosophy because its aim is to pursue truth, and it presents the idea of deliberative democracy.Nevertheless, Rawls'political philosophy is not the truth. First, the well-ordered constitutional democracy society that Rawls has conceived in the idea of public reason is not a real Utopian as well as overlapping consensus. Second, Rawls'point of moral basis for constitutional democracy, the basic liberties of person prior to the good of society, can not meet the criterion of reciprocity as Rawls insists the view of person and ignores the good of society. In fact, Rawls'political philosophy is false: it is the philosophy of citizen, not government.