IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/polstu/v54y2006i2p289-309.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Debating Opportunities, Outcomes and Democracy: Young and Phillips on Equality

Author

Listed:
  • Chris Armstrong

Abstract

Within recent egalitarian theory, the ideal of equal opportunity holds considerable sway. Liberal egalitarians increasingly concentrate on refining this ideal, as do a number of Marxist theorists. At the same time many radical critics are unhappy with various aspects of this hegemony of equality of opportunity, and this article examines the reasons for their unhappiness, as well as two possible solutions. The first would be to reject equal opportunities in favour of another conception of equality, or to argue that the ideal can only play a limited role within an egalitarian project. Another would be to try to radicalise the idea of equal opportunities: to argue that equality of opportunity can be a transformative ideal if it is interpreted sufficiently broadly or deeply. We can identify Anne Phillips with the first approach, and Iris Young with the second. On the question of whether equality of opportunity can provide an overarching normative framework for egalitarian politics, Young’s response is in the positive, whereas Phillips’ is in the negative. The article critically addresses this dilemma, and concludes by siding with Phillips, by arguing that equality of opportunity is not capable of standing in as an overarching normative principle for egalitarian politics.

Suggested Citation

  • Chris Armstrong, 2006. "Debating Opportunities, Outcomes and Democracy: Young and Phillips on Equality," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 54(2), pages 289-309, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:54:y:2006:i:2:p:289-309
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2006.00600.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2006.00600.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2006.00600.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philippe VAN PARIJS, 1990. "Equal Endowments as Undominated Diversity," Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) 1990034, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Claude Gamel, 2004. "Comment financer l'allocation universelle. La stratégie de Van Parijs (1995) en question," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 70(3), pages 287-314.
    2. Kranich, Laurence, 2015. "Equal shadow wealth: A new concept of fairness in exchange economies," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 110-117.
    3. Henderson Troy, 2017. "Real Freedom for All Revisited – Normative Justifications of Basic Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, June.
    4. Jorge Nieto Vazquez & Pedro Pascual Arzoz & Manuel Rapun Garate, 1998. "Distribucion, compensacion y fondos estructurales: una propuesta metodologica," Documentos de Trabajo - Lan Gaiak Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra 9805, Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra.
    5. Maryse Gadreau & Claude Schneider-Bunner, 1997. "L'équité dans le modèle de "concurrence organisée" pour la régulation d'un système de santé," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 129(3), pages 221-237.
    6. Laurence Kranich, 2009. "Measuring opportunity inequality with monetary transfers," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 7(4), pages 371-385, December.
    7. Thomson, William, 2011. "Chapter Twenty-One - Fair Allocation Rules," Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, in: K. J. Arrow & A. K. Sen & K. Suzumura (ed.), Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 21, pages 393-506, Elsevier.
    8. Fleurbaey, Marc & Maniquet, Francois, 1996. "Fair allocation with unequal production skills: The No Envy approach to compensation," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 71-93, August.
    9. Fleurbaey, Marc, 1996. "Reward patterns of fair solutions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 365-395, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:54:y:2006:i:2:p:289-309. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0032-3217 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.