Ambedkar's Idea of Substantive Social Justice and the Critique of Liberal Democracy

The political philosophy of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar provides a stringent criticism of the liberal democratic theory and describes an argumentative understanding of substantial social justice that goes beyond the actual delivery of formal equality. Although the traditional liberal democracy lays emphasis on the procedural right and legal equality, Ambedkar emphasises the need to eliminate historically established and structurally entrenched inequality that impedes the true freedom and dignity of socially marginalised sections of society. This paper questions the criticism of liberal democratic models by Ambedkar, assessing the benefits of the substantive paradigm of social justice on the limitations of legal equality and developing an agenda of transformative change to inclusive democracy. With three analytical prisms (i) epistemological premises of social justice articulated by Ambedkar, (ii) the limitations of liberal democracy, and (iii) substantive justice within the institutional means of democracies dealing with deep-rooted inequities, this paper summarises recent academic discussions to suggest that such a theory remains relevant today to provide valuable insights in fighting any form of entrenched inequities in democracies. The analysis concludes that substantive social justice does not represent a normative issue but also an operational requirement of democratic societies.