Dualism, incentives and the demands of Rawlsian justice

In normative political theory, the position called dualism maintains that the two practical problems of institutional design and personal conduct require, at the fundamental level, two different kinds of practical principle. The most influential proponent of dualism is John Rawls, and his theory of "justice as fairness" has recently been criticized by the monists Liam Murphy and G.A. Cohen. In this paper I argue that if Rawlsians are going to salvage his dualistic framework from the challenge raised by Murphy and Cohen, they will have to reject Rawls's "political conception" of justice in favour of the partially comprehensive view defended in A Theory of Justice. I contend that dualism is only a viable approach to normative political theory if both aspects of the dualistic framework are emphasized.