The Contemporary Communitarianism Justice Theory And Its Implications To The Construction Of The Harmonious Society

At the beginning of the new century, our country brings up the great idea of setting up the socialist harmonious society. Justice performs the core position in the harmonious society. Each kind of political theory that ever appeared in the progress of the human history has its own rationality. We should absorb critically each kind of political theory in the construction of the harmonious society. Facing the western social crisis resulting from the new liberalism theory, communitarianism has put forward its own view of justice. This kind view of justice can give us some implications in our construction of the harmonious society.This paper contains two parts—introduction and body and there are five parts included in the body. The background and significance of this issue are analyzed in the introduction. There are a number of crises in the western society which is now caused by the justice of the new liberalism theory. Communitarianism criticizes the justice of the new liberalism theory and brings up their own view of justice. In China, our country will build the harmonious society. In view of the phenomenon of the unfairness and injustice of the society, how to realize the justice is very important for the construction of the harmonious society. The modern communitarianism justice theory has great significance in our construction of the harmonious society.In the first part of the paper, it summarizes the communitarianism as a whole and introduces the historical process and the representatives of the communitarianism. Secondly, it analyzes the social background of the rise of the communitarianism justice theory. With the leading of the new liberalism theory, the spreading of individualism in society, social moral failure, the state neutrality which caused people's positive rights to be violated, all of these public crises laid the background for the rise of communitarianism justice theory. The paper also analyzes the theoretical origin of the rise of communitarianism justice theory. The discussion of Aristotle about the virtue of justice in ancient communities provides the theoretical basis for the communitarianism. In modern times, Hegel's critique about the liberalism and discussion about the relationship of the individual,the society and the history tradition affect communitarianism.In the second part of the paper, at the beginning of this part, it analyzes the crisis that communitarianism brings to the new liberalism justice theory. The crisis mainly includes the idea of individualism and rights being prior to the kindness. Communitarians bring up the Virtue Theory of Justice and Rules of Justice. The justice that communitarianism means in essence is a consensus of public interest which is based on the social and historical traditions by community members. The consensus contains community's common goals, common values and common interests. In relation to the principle of the justice, Mclntyre adheres to the principles of due while Walzer argues the distribution of the different areas have different allocation criteria and Miller insists on the principles of multiple distribution.In the third part of the paper, it makes a reflection about the contemporary communitarianism justice theory, which has its own rationality and limitations. The rationality is the crisis that communitarianism makes to the new liberalism justice theory and it insists kindness prior to the rights. It also brings up some new solutions to some practical problems. The limitation is the lack of possibility in the powerful states for communitarianism. Communitarian does not provide realistic operations for the virtue of justice.In the forth part of the paper, it analyzes some problems about the construction of the harmonious society. In the economic sphere, it manifests the enlarging gap between rich and poor. In the political sphere, it manifests the legal rights of citizens can not be guaranteed. In the field of social protection, it manifests the basic needs of vulnerable groups are not met.In the fifth part of the paper, it analyzes the implications that communitarianism justice theory gives to the construction of the harmonious society. The implications mainly contain the following aspects:in the ethical aspect, we should insist on the moral construction of civic virtue; in the distribution of social benefits, we should insist on the multiple justice principles and equality of justice; and in the political aspect, the state should guarantee the legitimate rights of the individuals.