 What is the scope of public reason? To which topics or domains of moral and political life does the idea of public reason apply? On Rawls’s influential account, the idea of public reason applies to what he calls the constitutional essentials and matters of basic justice within a liberal democratic society, “but not in general for all the questions for all the questions to be settled by the legislature within a constitutional framework” (Rawls 2001, 91). Rawls suggests that “citizens and legislators may properly vote their more comprehensive views when constitutional essentials and matters of basic justice are not stake; they need not justify by public reason why they vote as they do” (Rawls 1996, 235). Constitutional essentials, for Rawls, include: the principles that structure the government and political process (e.g. rules determining who may vote, and whether a system is parliamentary or presidential), and the basic rights and liberties of citizens (Rawls 1996, 227). Matters of basic justice involve principles regulating the distribution of important resources (e.g. income, wealth) not covered by the list of basic rights and liberties (Rawls 1996, 228–229).