Citizenship and the virtues of public reason in John Rawls

John Rawls is the most important thinker in twentieth century political philosophy. His views on justice have had a far-reaching impact on ethics, political philosophy, law and political science. Rawls has made significant changes in the methodological aspects of justification in his later theory. One primary explanation for these developments is to the challenges associated in articulating a comprehensive doktrine, which is not suitable for a liberal democratic plüralist societies. Citizenship became a central concept in Rawls' second period theor. The overlapping consensus on political liberalism is defended around the ideas of reasonableness, public reason, public justification, civic virtues, political virtues, and deliberative democracy. The aim of this thesis is to present Rawls' model of citizenship in this process of change. As it is known, the Aristotelian-republican model and the liberal model are considered as two models of citizenship. Rawls distinguishes the Aristotelian model from the republican model and expresses that his idea overlaps with the republican model. According to him, the Aristotelian model is an encompassing model and does not coincide with political liberalism. On the other hand, the republican model supports political liberalism's understanding of citizenship in that it guarantees civic participation and public debate. The main question of this thesis is this: what kind of education can provide the qualities of citizenship that Rawls puts forward? Has such a citizenship education distanced Rawls from being a liberal theorist? According to our analysis, Rawlsian political liberal citizenship education requires and mandates the following in an educational system: Teaching students the skills, concepts and virtues necessary for them to be free, equal and responsible citizens; teaching them their political rights and freedoms; providing them with an education that enables them to be reasonable citizens; and developing and internalizing their capacity to be reasonable citizens, teaching children to understand the reality of reasonable pluralism and the criteria of reciprocity and to appreciate it in their lives; teaching them to use public reason in making decisions on fundamental political issues; developing the values, motivation and skills to actively participate in political deliberation; and raising children as autonomous individuals who can ensure their personal and economic development. We showed that Rawls' position on the intersection with the republican notion of citizenship, given the context of the notions and principles we have examined, is warranted. That is, Rawls, as a liberal, reconciled republican citizenship with liberal citizenship.