Social justice in developing countries

What is it about?

We use a newly constructed index for social justice to measure new values for the social justice index in 35 countries in two periods, 2005-2010 and 2011-2015, and show how developing countries have changed their levels of social justice.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

No study has assessed quantitatively the developments in the levels of social justice in developing countries through time. The primary reason for this is that, until three years ago, there was no index that measured quantitatively social justice in developing countries. In 2013, the first composite index ever to quantify social justice for developing countries, with its two versions SJI-1 and SJI-2, was released. For the first time, it calculated values for social justice for some developing countries using the most recent data up till that time. This study compares the new values of social justice with old ones of 2013. Results of the new values of the index in its two versions were close in showing how 31 countries (according to SJI-1) and 29 countries (according to SJI-2) managed to improve their levels of social justice, while the indexes of only three countries (according to SJI-1) and six countries (according to SJI-2) have worsened. Nevertheless, the index depicted that some countries performed better than others by improving their ranks at the expense of others. Comparison of the study’s quantitative results with qualitative research seem to provide more support for SJI-2 in echoing social justice compared to SJI-1.

Perspectives