Equality /
Alex Callinicos.
- Cambridge, U.K. : Polity Press, 2000
- x, 160 p. ; 19cm.
Preface and Acknowledgements. - 1. Inequality Today. A world od inequality. Poverty and inequality in the advanced economies. Does inequality matter? - 2. Equality and the Revolution. The dynamic of modernity. Socialism and equality : Marx, Tawney, Crosland. - 3. Equality and the Philosophers. New labour and socialist values. Rawls and the difference principle. Equality of what?. Injustice, exploitation and desert. Identity and difference. - 4. Equality and Capitalism. Equality without tears. On the capitalist roller coaster. Equality versus the market. The test of reality. - Afterword. - Notes. - Index.
The author explores the meaning of equality in the contemporary world, traces its origins as a political ideal in the great democratic revolutions of the 17th and the 18th century, and in the efforts of the socialist movement to force capitalism to live up to its promise of liberty, equality and fraternity. Callinicos also shows how the theories of egalitarian justice developed over the past generation by philosophers such as John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Amartya Sen and G.A. Cohen have given a much more precise meaning to the ideal of equality. - Back cover