Theory of Justice many contemporary philosophers have embraced Hegelian philosophy to a surprising degree which may even help to bridge the gulf between the and Continental traditions Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right has so far failed to exert the slightest influence on the current debates in political philosophy. Rather, in recent years--after the abrupt end of the Marxist phase and its reduction of modern right to a mere superstructure-philosophers returned on a broad front to the rationalist paradigm of the Kantian tradition, which es sentially dominates the debate from Rawls to Habermas; and however hard these two authors in particular try to embed their Kantian concepts of justice in a realistic, almost social-scientific approach, the theoretical model of Hegel's Philosophy of Right plays no decisive part in their thought. Nor has the situation changed much in response to the countermovement in political philosophy that came into being through the somewhat arti- ficial grouping of theoreticians as diverse as Charles Taylor, Michael Walzer, or Alasdair MacIntyre under the heading of "communitarianism." Despite a strong tendency to award a privileged position to ethics as opposed to a formalistic prin- ciple of morality, or to communal values as opposed to arbi trary individual freedom, no real attempt has been made in these circles to render Hegel's Philosophy of Right fruitful for the discourse of political philosophy. Indeed, the fact that authors