John Rawls is undoubtedly one of the most important political philosophers of the twentieth century, and his A Theory of Justice is an essential reference point for academic debates in moral and political theory. Outside of the Ivory Tower, though, his ideas have had little influence.

With Free and Equal: A Manifesto for a Just Society, economist and philosopher Daniel Chandler hopes to change that. Chandler argues that Rawls’s liberal theory of justice speaks powerfully to the crisis of liberal democracy that has enveloped much of the developed world in the last decade; according to Chandler, Rawls’s ideas offer a framework for a program of far-reaching political and economic reforms to drastically reduce inequalities of wealth and power and neutralize the ascendant authoritarian far right.

Jacobin contributor and political theorist Matt McManus recently sat down with Chandler to discuss Rawls’s theories, what a Rawlsian political program would look like, and what socialists might find of value in the late philosopher’s work.