An approach to quantifying social justice in selected developing countries

Abstract

PurposeThe objective of this paper is to prove that any attempt to implement social justice in its present undefined form is unattainable, and to successfully achieve social justice, the term should be quantified by an appropriate index; accordingly, the first objective of this paper is to make an attempt to construct an appropriate social justice index. The second objective is to quantify this index for a number of developing countries so that a government with low value of social justice index can make policy for achieving an appropriate level of social justice.Design/methodology/approachThe paper constructs a new composite index for social justice for 40 mostly developing countries by selecting six subindicators, each of which represents one aspect or dimension of social justice. The values of the subindicators are then normalized and the final composite index is formed from the weighted average of the subindicators.FindingsThe study quantified the levels of social justice in developing countries through a new social justice index and compared the ranking of some developing countries using the new index. The index also helped in identifying areas of social justice that need improvement and hence can improve the developing countries' scores in the social justice index.Originality/valueThe paper is valuable to policy makers in developing countries especially the Arab Spring countries in their pursuit for achieving social justice. Quantifying social justice clarifies exactly where such countries stand and the dimensions of social justice that need urgent action to improve their performance and thus their index scores.

Effects of Inter-organizational Justice on Dimensions of Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: A Study on Kuwait Ministries’ Employees

“…These criteria can be grouped into two categories: informational and interpersonal justice (Demir, 2016). Informational justice refers to the explanation that the employees get (Lim and Loosemore, 2017), while interpersonal justice refers to how an individual perceives equality based on dignity, freedom of thought and expression (Helmy, 2013; Demir, 2016). In this research, interactional justice is the employees’ perception of fairness based on dignity, concern, respect, the explanation they received to clarify the procedures and the way the outcomes are distributed.…”

Three years after their first social justice index: how well did LDCs perform?

“…As a robustness check, the study measured social justice in three OECD countries using the new index, and compared their relative performance using the new SJI index (how each country compares with the other in terms of social justice) with their relative performance using the BS index. Results demonstrated that the two indexes were consistent in explaining the relative performance of such countries when compared to each other, despite the wide differences between the two indexes in terms of the subindicators included and whether higher or lower values were better (Helmy, 2013). A recent report published by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia described Helmy's index as "taking the Bertelsmann Stiftung index one step further by developing a simple model assessing developing countries" (Azour, 2014).…”

“…In 2013, the first index quantifying social justice in developing countries, with its two versions entitled SJI-1 and SJI-2, was published (Helmy, 2013). Based on the Bertelsmann Stiftung (2011) index for measuring social justice in Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, the new index incorporated six dimensions of social justice, namely, poverty reduction, access to education, labour inclusion, access to health, non-discrimination and intergenerational justice.…”

“…Both indexes ranged from 0 to 1, with lower values implying better performances in the field of social justice. The index used the most recent year available at that time -2011 -but utilized earlier years when values for 2011 were not available, but not earlier than 2005, meaning that the index range assessed in most cases the period 2005-2010(Helmy, 2013.…”

Can Corporate Governance Improve Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Accounting Disclosure in Egyptian Banks?

“…For Jamali et al (2008), managers deem CG an essential pillar for sustainable CSR, though encourage corporate accountability and social justice. Social justice indeed becoming integral to corporate governance and managing economic enterprises (Hsieh, 2006), especially Africaa continent with the worst social justice (Helmy, 2013). Africa has high unemployment, large scale poverty and inaccessible justice systems but also widespread deprived socio-economic conditions, food insecurity, armed conflict and violence, violations of people's social, economic, civil, political rights, HIV/AIDS, and failings in the social contract between citizens and the state (African Human Development Report, 2016).…”