The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Equality, Risk and Responsibility: Dworkin on the Insurance Market.

Equality, Risk and Responsibility: Dworkin on the Insurance Market.
Equality, Risk and Responsibility: Dworkin on the Insurance Market.
The concept of risk occupies centre-stage in debates about individual and social responsibilities and, within a broadly neo-liberal regime, the paradigmatic form of risk management is insurance. Nevertheless analysis of these recent shifts in welfare politics appears curiously disconnected from dominant trends of normative political theorizing. The rise of ‘insurance as government’ and ‘risk management as responsibility and opportunity’ has not obviously been addressed even by prominent liberal political theorists. Similarly the analysts of neo-liberalism have devoted little attention to tracing these concepts through the literature on political theory. This article seeks to remedy this disconnection, by showing how Ronald Dworkin – perhaps the foremost liberal theorist writing today – offers us an account of equality which foregrounds the apparatus of insurance, and represents the management of risk within the welfare system as both an opportunity and a responsibility. Furthermore, his account inherits many of the ambiguities and weaknesses of neo-liberal theory and redeploys them within the political theory of equality.
risk, responsibility, insurance, neo-liberalism, equality, Dworkin
0308-5147
451-473
Armstrong, Chris
2fbfa0a3-9183-4562-9370-0f6441df90d2
Armstrong, Chris
2fbfa0a3-9183-4562-9370-0f6441df90d2

Armstrong, Chris (2005) Equality, Risk and Responsibility: Dworkin on the Insurance Market. Economy and Society, 34 (3), 451-473. (doi:10.1080/03085140500111915).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The concept of risk occupies centre-stage in debates about individual and social responsibilities and, within a broadly neo-liberal regime, the paradigmatic form of risk management is insurance. Nevertheless analysis of these recent shifts in welfare politics appears curiously disconnected from dominant trends of normative political theorizing. The rise of ‘insurance as government’ and ‘risk management as responsibility and opportunity’ has not obviously been addressed even by prominent liberal political theorists. Similarly the analysts of neo-liberalism have devoted little attention to tracing these concepts through the literature on political theory. This article seeks to remedy this disconnection, by showing how Ronald Dworkin – perhaps the foremost liberal theorist writing today – offers us an account of equality which foregrounds the apparatus of insurance, and represents the management of risk within the welfare system as both an opportunity and a responsibility. Furthermore, his account inherits many of the ambiguities and weaknesses of neo-liberal theory and redeploys them within the political theory of equality.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 2005
Keywords: risk, responsibility, insurance, neo-liberalism, equality, Dworkin

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 34919
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/34919
ISSN: 0308-5147
PURE UUID: 1ee72fe7-07d4-4341-abec-16738fa688b5
ORCID for Chris Armstrong: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7462-5316

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 15 May 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:47

Export record

Altmetrics

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×