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Glossary Terms
| Term (EN) | Definition | Exam Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Social Justice | Fair distribution of rights, resources, and opportunities across all social groups | Core topic concept |
| Distributive Justice | Aristotle's principle of proportional allocation based on relevant differences | Reservations, progressive taxation |
| Corrective Justice | Rectifying historical wrongs by compensating the previously disadvantaged | Reparative affirmative action |
| Recognitive Justice | Acknowledging and affirming the cultural identity of marginalised groups (Fraser, Young) | Tribal rights, linguistic minorities |
| Veil of Ignorance | Rawls' thought experiment: design institutions without knowing your social position | Fairness test for policies |
| Difference Principle | Rawls: inequalities just only if they benefit the least-advantaged | DBT, MNREGA, reservations |
| Capabilities Approach | Sen/Nussbaum: justice requires substantive freedoms to live valued lives | Poverty beyond income |
| Capability Deprivation | Sen: poverty as lack of substantive freedoms — health, education, participation | HDI, welfare design |
| Humanitarian Concerns | Imperative to treat all humans with dignity/compassion in crisis, irrespective of identity | NDMA, disaster ethics |
| Accountability | Obligation to explain and justify use of public power with enforceability | All public service conduct |
| Answerability | Duty to report and explain decisions; component of accountability | RTI, audit reports |
| Social Audit | Community review of government scheme documents and field implementation | MNREGA Social Audit Rules 2011 |
| Jan Soochna Portal | Rajasthan's proactive disclosure platform for 300+ government services (2019) | Rajasthan-specific |
| Lokayukta | State anti-corruption ombudsman; Rajasthan Lokayukta includes CM jurisdiction | State-level accountability |
| RTI Act, 2005 | Citizen's right to government information within 30 days; born from MKSS movement | Social accountability tool |
| Zweckrationalität | Weber: action oriented to efficient achievement of a given end | Risk of moral blindness |
| Wertrationalität | Weber: action oriented to intrinsic ethical values regardless of efficiency | Ethical administration |
| Banality of Evil | Arendt: ordinary people commit atrocities through thoughtless compliance, not malice | Warning for bureaucrats |
| Communicative Rationality | Habermas: social action oriented to mutual understanding through reasoned dialogue | Jan Sunwai, social audit |
| Phronesis | Aristotle: practical wisdom — knowing the right thing to do in complex situations | Virtue ethics |
| MKSS | Aruna Roy's grassroots organisation that pioneered RTI and social audit in Rajasthan | Social accountability origins |
| Whistleblower | Official who exposes misconduct at personal risk; exemplar of value rationality | Moral courage |
| Principal-Agent Problem | Gap between principal's (public/minister) goals and agent's (official) behaviour due to information asymmetry | Corruption theory |
| NDMA | National Disaster Management Authority — issues guidelines for humanitarian response | Disaster ethics |
| Preamble Values | Justice (social, economic, political), Liberty, Equality, Fraternity — constitutional basis of value rationality | Constitutional ethics |
Sources: John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (1971); Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (1999); Max Weber, Economy and Society (1921); Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963); Jürgen Habermas, Theory of Communicative Action (1981); MKSS documentation; Rajasthan Jan Soochna Portal; MNREGA Social Audit Rules 2011; NDMA Guidelines; RPSC Mains Syllabus 2026; PYQ 2021 and 2023.