The theory of liberalism and political philosophy in general were dramatically revitalized by the publication of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971). In that work Rawls adopts the social contract model of political theory but with several key innovations. Rawls states that his theory seeks to capture the essence of the social contract theories of Locke, Rousseau, and Kant and develop the core idea of the contract to deal with traditional criticisms of the contract model of political legitimacy. The social contract model of justifying political authority has as its core idea that the basic principles of justice are the object of an original agreement that free and rational persons concerned to further their own interests would accept in an initial position of equality.

The Original Position

For Rawls, the first question for political theory is to specify what initial conditions are right for deciding the...