ABSTRACT
For over two centuries, Western secular concepts of social justice have been closely linked with the ideology of liberalism, yet this relationship has often been over-simplified. The opening essay in Part II, “Social justice and liberalism” (Chapter 9), by Michael Reisch, editor of the Handbook and Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor of Social Justice at the University of Maryland-Baltimore, traces the evolution of modern liberal concepts of social justice from the 17th-century to the present, identifies their major features today, discusses how these concepts are applied in contemporary policy, briefly addresses the major critiques of liberal ideas about social justice (these are more fully addressed in other essays in this volume), and identifies the political and ideological challenges to the hegemony of liberal ideas about social justice in the 21st century.
