For example, there is the danger that basic needs deprivations will place the least advantaged members of society in a position of economic vulnerability (Spitz 1993; Pettit 1997; Viroli 2002).
However, their own actions, individually and in the ensemble, will have an impact on the condition of the least advantaged members of society.
This approach espoused by the British is representative of a Rawlsian concept of 'justice as fairness' [ 22]. 'The higher expectations of those better situated are just if and only if they work as part of a scheme which improves the expectations of the least advantaged members of society'.
We still will allow for inequality to create incentives for economic growth, but Rawls suggests that, from an original position, we will choose structures that allow inequality only when the least advantaged members of society also benefit.
Yet those relationships seem to be less achievable for the least advantaged members of society.
Governor Carey's wisdom and compassion played a significant role in the selection of award winners for the prestigious Community Partnership Award - which recognizes the important contributions that nonprofit organizations make to the least advantaged members of their communities.
The dilemma is that while the socioeconomic status of the most disadvantaged members of the minority population has deteriorated rapidly since 1965 and especially since 1970, that of advantaged members has steadily improved.
This analytical view is based on Rawls' theory of justice, where inequality is determined by the "position of the least advantaged members of society.
According to this principle inequalities can be justified if they are "to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged members of society" (1999, 5 6).
Central to this approach is the notion of fair inegalitarianism, as a form of equality that includes the notion of fairness in the sense that it implies special provisions for the least advantaged members of society (Vouyoukas 2002).
In considering the nature of distributive justice, Rawls (1999: 13) argues that "social and economic inequalities, for example inequalities of wealth and authority, are just only if they result in compensating benefits for everyone, and in particular for the least advantaged members of society".
