Edited by Dr. Alexander Kaufman, Professor of Political Science, Realizing Equality in Policy explores the pervasive issue of economic and social inequality that has shaped global economies in recent decades. This collection of essays, featuring contributions from prominent scholars, addresses the impact of rising inequality on crucial policy areas such as education, healthcare, poverty alleviation, employment, and economic policy. By examining both luck and relational egalitarian perspectives, the volume challenges traditional assumptions about social and economic policy, highlighting the potential for these perspectives to inform solutions to wealth inequality.
Q: What motivated the creation of Realizing Equality in Policy? What kinds of conversations or interventions did you hope this book would generate within academic and policy communities?
A: The difficulty of connecting basic principles and values to policy is widely recognized in the political science and public policy literatures. In order to realize our culture’s basic commitments to fairness, liberty, and political equality, policy makers must find ways to connect values to policy. Unless policies are connected to principles and values in a coherent manner, those policies fail to serve our real interests and cannot be justified to the public.
Q: What were the unifying themes or tensions that emerged across the contribution
A:
- The operation of free markets, alone, cannot produce just outcomes.
- A just society requires ambitious policies to counteract barriers to equal opportunity generated by hereditary privilege.
- “Left” policies—if well designed—are entirely consistent with market efficiency.
- Embedded social norms that confer social privilege on certain groups continue to constitute important sources of injustice.
Q: How does bridging theory and practice enhance our understanding of persistent social and economic disparities?
A: Democracy is grounded in the idea of human equality, and the American tradition is explicitly committed to the view that all persons are created equal. Our political culture has, however, found it difficult to converge on an understanding of the policy implications of that view. In the dimension of political liberties, there is general commitment to the ideas that all persons are equally entitled to the liberty protections of the Bill of Rights.
In the economic realm, however, there is less agreement. At the most abstract level, most members of western democratic societies would agree that all persons are entitled to equal opportunity and fair compensation.
But what constitutes equal opportunity and fair compensation? Some would argue that these values are generated by the unregulated output of free markets. Others would argue that markets produce just results only when federal policies address market failures. Others would argue that even after market failures have been addressed, there is no reason to believe that markets generate anything resembling just outcomes. Rather, policies must address the effects of hereditary privilege and unequal bargaining power. But what policies are required and justified?
Theoretical work addressing the connection between theory and practice must address these questions.
Q: Did any of the essays offer especially novel or surprising perspectives on familiar policy areas like healthcare or education?
A: The Gerver chapter made the case that harm from wrongful discrimination does not become less morally problematic if the discrimination is against the very rich. The Wall chapter made the case that a commitment to equal protection of basic liberties is consistent with significant paternalism in public policy. Vrousalis argued persuasively that Kant’s political theory justifies socialism.
Q: How do you hope this volume will be used in classrooms, research projects, or by policymakers?
A: The chapters explore ideas (e.g. the (in)justice of markets, the gendered division of labor, the kind of toleration required in liberal foreign policy) that should be of interest to students of politics and public policy. Chapters could be used in courses to illustrate the practical commitments implicit in the western political tradition.
Q: If there is one key takeaway you hope readers will reflect on, what would that be?
A: Serious thought and analysis is required to connect values to policy.
