1 - Introduction

Summary

Pursuing equality is, for many of us, among the most noble and important endeavours of a modern government and society. This endeavour faces, however, a series of theoretical and practical challenges. The theoretical challenges reflect deep philosophical disagreements about what sort of equality should be pursued, and for whom. The practical challenges revolve around questions about which legal and political institutions are the most appropriate vehicles for realizing egalitarian justice, and how to implement effectively egalitarian social policy.

These challenges provide the general parameters for this book. It is my view that the theoretical and practical challenges of pursuing equality are closely inter-related and that neither the theoretical nor the practical challenges can be met without an eye toward the other. This means that it is unhelpful for philosophers to construct elaborate, abstract theories of egalitarian justice without some account of how to address the practical problems of realizing and implementing equality. Likewise, analysis of law and public policy cannot ignore recent sophisticated philosophical discussions around what is equality. The main arguments in this book are a combination of contemporary political philosophy and law and society scholarship. These arguments offer a response to the theoretical challenge of what sort of equality should be pursued, and partially meet the practical challenge of pursuing equality by considering a series of sites where either the courts or legislatures and public policymakers are struggling with the implications of pursuing equality.

The theoretical framework for the book is laid out in the next two chapters.