The Future of Liberal Equality

Abstract

What is the future of liberal equality? Liberty is the most important value in liberal theory. Understanding liberalism requires knowing why it remains under attack from the day it was reinvigorated by the publication of A Theory of Justice. The view of most conservatives is that it is wary that governments are burdened by overspending. Protectionist policies threaten the poor in developing countries. Internally, the middle class are too anxious about paying for social justice. Liberalism espouses the notion that the government exists to serve the worst off. The apparent gap between the rich and the poor is morally disturbing. Has liberalism failed as a model of justice? The paper explores several positions: the claims of libertarianism against the position of Rawls, the idea of utility versus the intuitive idea of justice as fairness, Amartya Sen and Thomas Pogge’s view on equality, and Derek Parfit’s critique of the levelling off theory. The idea of equality implies that each person must have equal opportunities. But what is more fundamental is that Rawlsian liberalism is not just about equality in terms of primary social goods, but more importantly, Rawls’s position supports the equal dignity of persons.