| Summary: | <p>This thesis examines how a society should deal with risk justly. Many risks commonly faced by members of a society could be regarded as being imposed on them through the collective choice of social institutions. Since subjecting people to risk sets back their basic interest in autonomy, risk imposition of this kind requires justification. In this thesis, I aim to answer questions including under what conditions it is justifiable for a society to impose risk on people and how the burden of social risk materialisation should be fairly allocated among members of a society.</p>
<p>To answer these questions, I develop an account of just social risk imposition and fair risk sharing by employing the Scanlonian contractualist framework. I argue that social risk imposition should be regulated by not only principles concerning potential outcomes of the risk in question but also principles concerning the nature or the characteristics of the risk. Moreover, the burden of compensating the victims of risk materialisation should be shared by all those who benefit from the imposition of the risk and its fair allocation should also take personal responsibility into consideration. This account is then expanded to cover topics such as long-term risk imposition on people from future generations and risk sharing with people who are not fully capable of contributing to social cooperation (such as people with severe disabilities). Finally, the thesis considers the institutional and policy implications of the account. I argue that the account provides a fairness-based justification for social insurance and may help to address policy questions such as what risks should be covered by social insurance and how a social insurance scheme should be funded.</p>
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