CONCEPT
The Basic Structure
Rawls's term for the fundamental institutions of society — the constitution, the legal system, the property regime, the tax code, the educational system, the labor market — that distribute the advantages and disadvantages of social cooperation and constitute the primary subject of justice.
The basic structure is what Rawls called the "primary subject" of justice. It consists of the major institutions through which a society assigns rights and duties, distributes benefits and burdens, and shapes the life prospects of every person subject to it. These institutions are not natural features of the landscape. They are designed, maintained, and reformed by human beings, and because they determine the life prospects of everyone they govern, they must satisfy the requirements of justice. The basic structure has a special status in Rawls's theory because its effects are so pervasive and so profound — it shapes the initial chances of persons so deeply that no person can reasonably consent to enter it without the protections that justice provides. The AI transition has created a new layer of the basic structure that Rawls could not have anticipated but that his framework is designed to evaluate: the platforms that mediate access