Document Type
Review
Publication Date
2018
Abstract
Equality, you might think, is the more or less universally shared value of the modern world, or the West, or anyway these United States. “We strive to ensure that the values upon which our country was built, including our belief that all people are created equal, are reflected in everything our nation does.” That’s from the 2016 Democratic Party platform. And look! “We continue to encourage equality for all citizens and access to the American Dream.” That’s from the 2016 GOP Platform. Of course, the parties disagree deeply on the demands of equality. If they share an abstract concept, as Ronald Dworkin might put it, they have sharply divergent conceptions. Or, as someone more skeptical might put it, “equality” is just the name of an empty vessel into which partisans pour whatever contents they like. Or, more skeptically yet, maybe one of the parties is lying.
Recommended Citation
Herzog, Don. "Facts, Values, Justification, Democracy." Review of Why Does Inequality Matter?, by T. M. Scanlon. Harv. L. Rev. 131, no. 8 (2018): 2359-85.