The Egalitarian Conditions of Just Happiness: A Rawlsian Approach to Pluralistic Well-Being

What role can political institutions play in reconciling the demands of justice with the desire for happiness in diverse societies? The increased measurement and politicization of well-being in recent decades has left many multicultural democracies struggling to support their citizens’ happiness while respecting the value of pluralism. Drawing on John Rawls’s theories of social and developmental psychology, as well as empirical research on the social determinants of well-being, this paper develops a conceptual and normative framework for understanding and addressing this challenge. Conceptually, the paper describes how political institutions function as “infrastructures of feeling” that shape the psychological dispositions and moral sensibilities of those living under them. Normatively, the paper argues that institutions reflecting Rawls’s liberal egalitarian conception of justice are uniquely capable of supporting happiness while affirming pluralism. This “experience-oriented egalitarianism” offers an original account of the connections between institutional design, public policy, moral psychology, and social justice, with direct implications for policymaking in multicultural democracies. The paper therefore concludes by offering several prescriptive recommendations for addressing the infrastructural origins of the “happiness crises” emerging in many diverse societies.