[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Social & Political Philosophy
A civilized society is one whose members do not humiliate one another, while a decent society is one in which the institutions do not humiliate people. Thus, for example, one might think of Communist Czechoslovakia as a non-decent but civilized society, while it is possible to imagine without any contradiction a Czech Republic which would be more decent but less civilized.
Social institutions can be described in two ways: abstractly, by their rules or laws, or concretely, by their actual behavior. Analogously, one can speak of institutional humiliation by law, as manifested by the Nuremberg Laws or those of apartheid, in contrast to concrete acts of institutional humiliation, such as the Los Angeles police officers' treatment of the black motorist Rodney King. In the concrete description of institutions the distinction between a non-civilized and a non-decent society is blurred. My interest in institutions is focused on their concrete aspect, and so this distinction may become blurred quite often in this book. But even if it is not always clear how the distinction applies in particular cases, it is nevertheless a distinction with merit. The idea of a civilized society is a micro ethical concept concerned with the relationships between individuals, while the idea of a decent society is a macro ethical concept concerned with the setup of the society as a whole.
The concept of a decent society may be compared and contrasted with other evaluative terms--for example, that of a proper society as one that adheres to due process, or that of a respectable society as one that protects its citizens' respectability. But the most important comparison is between a decent and a just society. Clarifying the concept of a decent society requires not only elucidating the contrast between decent and non-decent societies but also comparing it with other social notions, whether rival or complementary..................
