What is the point of egalitarian social relationships?

Tomlin, Patrick

doi:10.1017/cbo9781139940924.010

Cited by 44 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“… 30. Commenting on why certain relations between individuals are intrinsically valuable, Martin O’Neill similarly concludes that “The existence of these kinds of social relations should itself be seen as intrinsically valuable, independent of the positive effects that such relations may have for individual welfare” (2008:: 130). For helpful discussion of this quote, see Tomlin (2015: 164). …”

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confidence: 99%

Distributions and Relations: A Hybrid Account

Moles¹,

Parr

2018

Political Studies

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There is a deep divide among political philosophers of an egalitarian stripe. On the one hand, there are so-called distributive egalitarians, who hold that equality obtains within a political community when each of its members enjoys an equal share of the community’s resources. On the other hand, there are so-called social egalitarians, who instead hold that equality obtains within a political community when each of its members stands in certain relations to other members of the community, such as non-domination and lack of oppression. In this article, we have three aims. Our first aim is to cast doubt on the helpfulness of characterizing the debate in this way. Our second aim is to reconstruct this debate in alternative and more precise terms, so that disagreements between advocates of either side are easier to evaluate. Our third aim is to advance a hybrid account that integrates element from both views.

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confidence: 99%

Distributions and Relations: A Hybrid Account

Moles¹,

Parr

2018

Political Studies

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“…The value alluded to here does not necessarily depend on whether relationships absent of servility make people's lives better. Yet it is not obvious that we should endorse the view that egalitarian relationships are morally important in a world in which they are generally bad for people (Tomlin 2014, 17, see also footnote 54). This suggests that at least part of the reason why we should be concerned about servility is because it makes people's lives worse instrumentally as well as non-instrumentally 14…”

Section: What Servility Is and Why It Is Objectionablementioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating Servility: Policies of Egalitarian Self-Relations

Hojlund

2021

Brit. J. Polit. Sci.

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How should inequalities generated in part by people's self-devaluing attitudes be understood, and what can be done politically to counteract them? Building on central elements of relational egalitarianism, this article scrutinizes the case of servility as an instance of failure to relate to oneself as an equal, attitudinally and behaviorally speaking. From this perspective, servility as well as the adverse distributive consequences it gives rise to should be considered objectionable and in need of mitigation. Considering the case of political voice, the article points to certain paternalistic policies as a means of altering servility by inducing people to make their claims heard. Indeed, such policies may serve as particularly apt instruments since they directly target attitudinal barriers to relational equality in the political sphere. The novel claim is that paternalism, by altering servile attitudes as well as behavioral patterns, may effectively help make people relate to themselves in a more egalitarian manner.

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“…While relational egalitarians have generally criticised luck egalitarians for failing to explain why distributive equality is morally desirable, perhaps in a similar way they have not been particularly vocal about what makes relating to one another as equals desirable (e.g., Anderson, 1999;Lippert-Rasmussen, 2018b;Scheffler, 2003;Tomlin, 2015). In many contexts, relating as equals undoubtedly appears morally preferable to relating as unequals -especially when the comparison involves our relating not just as slightly unequal but as seriously unequal.…”

Section: What Is the Point Of Relational Equality?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Is it unjust that elderly people suffer from poorer health than young people? Distributive and relational egalitarianism on age-based health inequalities

Lippert‐Rasmussen

2019

Politics, Philosophy & Economics

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In any normal population, health is unequally distributed across different age groups. Are such age-based health inequalities unjust? A divide has recently developed within egalitarian theories of justice between relational egalitarians focusing on the egalitarian nature of social relations and luck egalitarians focusing on the distribution of goods such as welfare or resources. I argue that the most plausible versions of these two theories – ‘whole lives’ luck egalitarianism and time-relative relational egalitarianism – imply conflicting answers to the opening question. Under realistic conditions, the former implies that, from the perspective of luck egalitarian justice, it is better that old people are disadvantaged by bad health than that they are not, whereas the latter theory implies that many age-based health inequalities involve unjust, non-egalitarian social relations and are therefore unjust. Hence, I contend that different egalitarian concerns must be balanced against one another, suggesting that the relational concern has greater weight in this particular case. Along the way, I propose a social model of old age analogous to the social model of disability and suggest that a whole lives version of relational egalitarianism might also be attractive.

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What is the point of egalitarian social relationships?

Cited by 44 publications

References 19 publications

Distributions and Relations: A Hybrid Account

Distributions and Relations: A Hybrid Account

Mitigating Servility: Policies of Egalitarian Self-Relations

Is it unjust that elderly people suffer from poorer health than young people? Distributive and relational egalitarianism on age-based health inequalities

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