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Justice requires that public institutions treat each person as an equal. A complete theory of justice should provide an account of those principles which both best organize and defend our various sentiments about justice and tell us which institutional arrangements and public policies will, in a given set of circumstances, best serve to ensure that our society is or becomes a just one. In the pluralistic liberal democracies of developed western societies we all accept the notion that governments, if they are to be just governments, must not play favorites. Governments have a duty to treat each person with equal concern and respect, or as a free and equal moral person, and to organize their activities so that, so far as possible, they are neutral between various competing conceptions of how one ought to live one's life. In accepting this we all agree that political discourse is to be limited to those options which can be seriously defended from an egalitarian plateau. We reject any position which can be shown to count some for more than one, or others for less than one. This agreed upon egalitarian plateau has come to be called the neutrality principle.

Recently there has been a trend for those governments which provide development aid to put overt and explicit conditions on how the recipients of aid should use development funds to mold their societies. The values endorsed by the developed nations are respect for human rights, moves towards democracy, and steps to establish market economies. Is it appropriate for developed countries to attach strings to the aid they provide to developing countries or does this amount to an unjustifiable interference in the affairs of others? If the developed countries do attach strings, how are we to judge what to do when the strings get tangled? Democracy, human rights, and market economy are the values westerners have signalled they are going to insist on most highly in determining aid.

This paper examines David Hume's argument that, among its other virtues, a society of just persons enhances our security. It is argued that, in the circumstances we find ourselves in today, Hume's account of the manner in which living in a just society serves to increase the security of those who inhabit the society requires that governments, in addition to providing for the conditions needed to protect private property rights and to foster an open market, have a duty to provide for social justice for their citizens. It is suggested that a scheme of welfare rights, similar to those advocated by Ronald Dworkin in his account of equality of resources, offers the best model for contemporary Humeans to pursue.

Explores the prospects for constructing a feminist contractarian moral theory. Argues that the social contractarianism championed by John Rawls and feminized by Susan Okin is unlikely to succeed in offering feminists an alternative theory of justice which can compete with utilitarianism. However, an appropriately modified economic contractarianism, such as that championed by David Gauthier, offers more promise for producing a successful liberal feminist theory of justice. Holds that a feminist ethic of care based on an economic contractarian model must move from an exclusive concern with game‐theoretic bargaining to solve prisoners’ dilemma problems to a bargaining game which also deals with the assurance problem. Offers speculation of how such a theory could be rigorously developed.

This paper examines the duty to rescue and the duty to assist the needy. An explanation is offered regarding why common‐sense morality makes the duty to rescue feel more pressing than the duty to assist the needy.

As we approach the millennium, we find ourselves in a world that places ever greater weight and significance on the outcome of polls, surveys, and market research. The advent of modern polling began with the use of scientific sampling in the mid‐1930s and has progressed vastly beyond the initial techniques and purposes of the early practitioners such as George Gallup, Elmo Roper, and Archibald Crossley. In today's environment, the computer is an integral part of most commercial survey work, as are the efforts by academic and nonprofit enterprises. It should be noted that the distinction between the use of the words “poll” and “survey” is somewhat arbitrary, with the mass media seeming to prefer “polling,” and with academia selecting “survey research.” However, searching online systems will yield differing results, hence this author's inclusion of both terms in the title of this article.