ABSTRACT
The article aims to reject two interrelated theses on the philosophical project carried forward by the late John Rawls. The first thesis states that there is an important change in Rawls' late works such as "Political Liberalism" (1993; 1996) and "Justice as Fairness: A Restatement" (2001) regarding the nature of his theory. Particularly, this change would had brought about a reassessment of Rawls' contractualist argument. The second thesis claims that one of the most important consequences of such reassessment is the retreat from strong egalitarian commitments, as they were present in Rawls' original theory of justice. The article rejects both theses, showing (i) that Political Liberalism can be understood as a theory about the legitimate uses of power in a democratic society (and not a new theory of justice) and (ii) that such new theory of legitimacy brings about distributive consequences by its own that sharply contrast with classical liberal theories.
Keywords
Contractualism; Equalitarianism; Legitimacy