The two principles of justice are “standards by which to assess economic arrangements and policies, and their background institutions” (228). Rawls writes that “[a] doctrine of political economy must include an interpretation of the public good which is based on a conception of justice” (229), adding that:

[a] political opinion concerns what advances the good of the body politic as a whole and invokes some criterion for the just division of social advantages […] Thus an economic system is not only an institutional device for satisfying existing wants and needs but a way of creating and fashioning wants in the future (229).

A theory of justice defines a varied class of goods normally wanted in rational plans of life, but within this varied class of goods allows a person choice in their specific ends. While justice as fairness contains individualistic features, its two principles are not contingent on present desires or social conditions. This just, basic structure is a standard in appraising institutions and guiding social change. 

The subject of this text’s analysis is the theory of justice, not economics. Economics is referenced only as it relates to justice-as-fairness, specifically concerning the justice of economic institutions. When possible, economic institutions should be constructed as to satisfy