The Civic Minimum

Stuart White's The Civic Minimum argues that a just society must provide citizens with a baseline of civic equality and social conditions enabling meaningful participation.

White grounds egalitarian duties in the civic status citizens hold, focusing on the obligations required to secure social membership and democratic equality.

The book discusses the moral significance of institutions and public goods that sustain citizenship, offering a critique of purely distributive or purely luck-based egalitarian arguments.

It has informed debates about the relationship between social membership, justice, and the role of public institutions in securing equality of status.

White's civic approach complements and challenges other egalitarian frameworks by emphasizing relational and institutional dimensions of justice.