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Political Equality by Precedent
Author(s) -
Aronovitch Hilliard
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ratio juris
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.344
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1467-9337
pISSN - 0952-1917
DOI - 10.1111/raju.12068
Subject(s) - entitlement (fair division) , constructive , politics , law and economics , begging , sociology , inequality , property (philosophy) , law , political science , economics , epistemology , mathematical economics , philosophy , mathematics , computer science , mathematical analysis , process (computing) , operating system
This article asks about the justification for the principle of political equality in the sense of equal entitlement to basic rights. A preliminary portion criticizes standard justifications that refer to a property or properties all human beings share; these fail because they are untrue, irrelevant, or question‐begging. The more substantial and constructive portion of the article then argues for a different, indirect mode of justification, based on rebuttals of historical presumptions of inequality and the actual evolution of the idea of equality through partial steps and specific precedents. The justification of political equality is thus connected to the explanation of its emergence.