Equality of opportunity - ePrints Soton

Mason, Andrew (2010) Equality of opportunity. In, Bevir, Mark (ed.) Encyclopedia of Political Theory. London, GB. SAGE Publications. (doi:10.4135/9781412958660).

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

There is widespread agreement that equality of opportunity is a good thing, even a constituent of a just society, but very little consensus on what it requires. Defenders of equality of opportunity suppose that it requires people to be able to compete on equal terms, on a “level playing field,” but they disagree over what it means to do so. They believe that equality of opportunity is compatible with, and indeed justifies, inequalities of outcome of some sort, but there is considerable disagreement over precisely what degree and kind of inequalities it justifies and how it does so. This entry examines the approaches to equality of opportunity taken by advocates of fair equality of opportunity, luck egalitarianism, and libertarianism. Many believe that equality of opportunity requires advantaged social positions to be subject to open competition. (This view is sometimes captured by the slogan, “careers open to talents.”) The idea here ...

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