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The equality of lotteries

The equality of lotteries
The equality of lotteries
Lotteries have long been used to resolve competing claims, yet their recent implementation to allocate school places in Brighton and Hove, England led to considerable public outcry. This article argues that, given appropriate selection is impossible when parties have equal claims, a lottery is preferable to an auction because it excludes unjust influences. Three forms of contractualism are discussed and the fairness of lotteries is traced to the fact that they give each person an equal chance, as a surrogate for their equal claim to the good. It is argued that this can be a reason to favour an artificially-constructed lottery to a ‘natural’ lottery where there is suspicion that the latter may be biased.
0031-8191
359-372
Saunders, Ben
aed7ba9f-f519-4bbf-a554-db25b684037d
Saunders, Ben
aed7ba9f-f519-4bbf-a554-db25b684037d

Saunders, Ben (2008) The equality of lotteries. Philosophy, 83 (3), 359-372. (doi:10.1017/S0031819108000727).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Lotteries have long been used to resolve competing claims, yet their recent implementation to allocate school places in Brighton and Hove, England led to considerable public outcry. This article argues that, given appropriate selection is impossible when parties have equal claims, a lottery is preferable to an auction because it excludes unjust influences. Three forms of contractualism are discussed and the fairness of lotteries is traced to the fact that they give each person an equal chance, as a surrogate for their equal claim to the good. It is argued that this can be a reason to favour an artificially-constructed lottery to a ‘natural’ lottery where there is suspicion that the latter may be biased.

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More information

Published date: July 2008
Organisations: Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 370368
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/370368
ISSN: 0031-8191
PURE UUID: 0fcde4c3-3b4b-4538-ae27-028f74b33413
ORCID for Ben Saunders: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5147-6397

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 22 Oct 2014 13:28
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:50

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