Why value equality?

Sagar Sanyal (The University of Melbourne)

Abstract: The paper explores the egalitarian debate in distributive justice. One strand of the debate concerns the reason why we should move towards greater equality in the distribution of resources and economic product. Two broad tendencies are the luck egalitarian (the distribution should reflect choice and effort, but not mere luck or circumstance) and the democratic egalitarian (the distribution should be such as is required for democratic relations among citizens). I sketch a version of the latter, and relate it to somewhat broader issues of (i) the interplay between liberty and equality, and (ii) the choice of resources or goods thought most relevant to egalitarianism. Like other democratic egalitarians, I draw inspiration from Rawls, though I emphasize aspects other than the ones usually cited.