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Liberty, Equality and Property‐Owning Democracy
Author(s) -
O'Neill Martin
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of social philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.353
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1467-9833
pISSN - 0047-2786
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9833.2009.01458.x
Subject(s) - democracy , citation , property (philosophy) , sociology , law and economics , political science , law , philosophy , epistemology , politics
This paper investigates the cogency of Rawls’s hostility towards ‘welfare-state capitalism’ and his advocacy of ‘property-owning democracy’ as an alternative to capitalism. I argue that the strongest arguments in support of property-owning democracy are connected to the demands of Rawls’s difference principle. I further argue that Rawls’s overall argument against the acceptability of ‘welfarestate capitalism’ is ultimately successful, but it is best understood in relation to his account of the badness of inequality. I nevertheless raise a number of problems for those lines of argument for ‘property-owning democracy’ that work through the principles of fair equality of opportunity or of fair value of the political liberties.