Social Justice and Democracy: Investigating the Link WOLFGANG MERKEL/ MIRKO KRÜCK O ver the last 25 years few terms in philosophy, sociology and political science have been as widely discussed as»democracy« and»justice«. The abundance and analytical precision of theoretical reflections and em­pirical research on the topic are impressive. This impression fades, how­ever, if theoretical and empirical analysis of the relationship between the two phenomena is considered: that is, what links or separates, advances or hinders democracy and(social) justice. The present study deals with these ligatures. Even a cursory overview of the research literature reveals a peculiar dif­ference between Anglo-Saxon and German or Latin American publica­tions. With a few exceptions, studies of transformation and democracy from the latter which deal with issues of social justice, often neglect or ig­nore contemporary theories of social justice. 1 Occasionally, the term »social justice« appears in the title of an article which in fact deals with inequality; the term»social inequality« is used where what is meant is»in­equality of income«; differences between equality of outcome and equal­ity of opportunity are not dealt with at all. Social justice, justicia social, social equality, inequality of income, social development, the a-priori justice of equal opportunity and the ex post equality of outcome or just distribution are cited, but they disappear in a fog of implicit synonymy. One look at the authors’ cited literature shows that they have consulted neither John Rawls nor F. A. von Hayek, Michael Walzer nor Amartya Sen, Brian Barry nor Ronald Dworkin for terminological pointers. Anglo-Saxon research into transformation and democracy is usually more cautious and precise. The terms»social justice« and»democracy« are hardly ever linked; if they are, the more precise terms»distributive in­equality« or even»income inequality and democracy« are used. The 1. Guillermo O’Donnell(1993; 1998) represents one of the few exceptions, providing lucid accounts of the connections between poverty, the dysfunctional state of law and»low intensity citizenship«. 134 Merkel/Krück, Social Justice and Democracy ipg 1/2004