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Egalitarian justice and interpersonal comparison
Author(s) -
CLAYTON MATTHEW,
WILLIAMS ANDREW
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6765.00455
Subject(s) - egalitarianism , interpersonal communication , verifiable secret sharing , welfare , positive economics , pluralism (philosophy) , economic justice , set (abstract data type) , strengths and weaknesses , public economics , social psychology , inequality , negotiation , economics , sociology , law and economics , welfare economics , microeconomics , political science , psychology , epistemology , computer science , law , social science , mathematics , mathematical analysis , philosophy , politics , programming language
. This paper surveys the strengths and weaknesses of three widely–discussed egalitarian standards of interpersonal comparison: welfare, resource , and capability . We argue that welfare egalitarianism is beset by numerous serious problems, and should be rejected. Capability and resourcist standards conform with egalitarian convictions more closely, but each faces distinctive problems. We itemise a set of desiderata which a fully adequate account of interpersonal comparison would satisfy. We conclude that the choice between capability and resourcist standards turns on the relative importance of such an account being able to accommodate reasonable pluralism and identify inequality in a publicly verifiable manner.