What Is the Point of Equality?

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Abstract
Philippe Van Parijs argues that equality in conjunction with liberal neutrality among conceptions of the good requires the state to support lazy, able-bodied surfers who are unwilling to work. Richard Arneson claims that equality requires that, under certain conditions, the state subsidize extremely costly religious ceremonies that its citizens feel bound to perform. Egalitarians base claims to social and political equality on the fact of universal moral equality. Democratic equality satisfies the first desideratum of egalitarian theory. It aims for equality across a wide range of capabilities. Democratic equality is also concerned with the distribution of divisible resources. Equality of fortune would offer compensation to those with low talents, precisely because their innate inferiority makes their labor so relatively worthless to others, as judged by the market. Democratic equality helps articulate the demands of genuine egalitarian movements in a framework that offers some hope of broader appeal.

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