Equality

The demand for equality is central to modern politics. But what
exactly do we mean by equality? Does it threaten other important
values? Is it a demand we should support or question?

This highly accessible book provides an engaging introduction to
the concept of equality and to the debates, historical and
contemporary, that surround it. It explains and critically
considers how the demand for equality arises in different
spheres.

In the political sphere, it explores the relationship between
equality and democracy. In the economic and social spheres, it
explores the ideal of meritocracy and more radical theories of
egalitarian justice developed in the works of John Rawls and Ronald
Dworkin. In the legal sphere, the book discusses the challenges
that feminism and multiculturalism pose to conventional conceptions
of equal citizenship.

It concludes with an examination of whether equality should go
global, and by analyzing contemporary arguments for and against the
continuing relevance of equality to the political life of affluent
democracies. Throughout, the book considers the tensions internal
to the demand for equality and between equality and other important
values such as liberty and efficiency.

Drawing on political philosophy, sociology and the history of
political thought, the book will be of interest to students and
researchers in philosophy and the social sciences and anyone
interested in the values that animate democratic political
life.