1. Introduction

Ever growing rate of poverty in various economies around the globe have been alarming for national level governments of different countries. While it has become difficult to reach the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of eradicating long term chronic poverty, national as well as international agencies have been making various attempts to fight against poverty. In such a situation, the role and the significance of social protection programs have been enhanced. Social Protection programs aim for distributive justice, however their success or failure in achieving so depends on targeting. The aim of this essay is to assess one of the popular theories of distributive justice and to associate it with social protection and policy making. This essay will begin with reviewing the main idea of John Rawls’ Maximin Principle and its applicability in public policy and evaluation. The essay will then follow by reviewing important literature that provides insights into the critique of Rawls theory. The essay will then analyze on social protection schemes and their contribution towards poverty alleviation in Pakistan and India.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Rawls’ Maximin Principle

John Rawls is well renowned for his work known as “Theory of Justice’ which has been of significant emphasis in the field of moral ethics as well as political philosophy. The theory not only aims to present solutions to the problem of distributive justice but also tends to make additions to what we know as welfare economics. John Rawls being the follower of social contract theory tradition calls for the reconciliation of liberty and equality in order to produce a just social system for the distribution of resources. Formation of Rawls’ theory has been heavily inspired by the work of David Hume (Circumstance of Justice) and Immanuel Kant (Fair Choice Situation) (Pecorino, 2006). Rawls argues that any party holding a decisive power in a society should be instilled with principles of justice.

Thus, Rawls comes up with a theory and explains that society can develop mutually acceptable principles of justice that are fair to all through the adoption of a device he calls “veil of ignorance”. Rawls believes that fair choices can be made if the decisive party chooses to operate from the “original position” from behind the veil of ignorance. This is the highlight of the theory proposed by Rawls as the concept of “veil of ignorance” is critical for the success of this theory. Attributing to this element of the theory, the decisive party will tend to make purely unbiased decisions if it operates from behind the veil, because it will blind the decision maker about any facts relevant to themselves that can influence their decision negatively. Hence, the decision maker will be unknown to his place in the society, his social status, his strengths and preferences, personal factors such as race, color, religion, sex nationality or individual tastes, and share of the natural resources in the distribution process. Unawareness of such factors will lead to making decisions that are in the best interest of the society and are not influenced by personal motives. Hence, Rawls argues that if his theory is followed while establishing a social system, the decisive party will come up with fair and just solutions for all winning over utilitarian and libertarian accounts. According to Rawls, unawareness of these points will lead to fair principles for all. If an individual is unaware of how he will end up in the society, he is likely not going to prioritize any specific group of people, rather develop a scheme that addressed everyone fairly. Thus, as per Rawls those in the Original Position would all implement a Maximin strategy which would maximize the prospects of the least well-off (Rawls, 1971).