Social Equality and the Global Society

What is it about?

Discussions of egalitarian justice raise two questions, one about what kind of equality we ought to realize, that is, whether equality is to be understood as equality of opportunity (luck egalitarianism), or as a kind of social relation whereby we treat each other as equals (democratic egalitarianism); and one about the scope of egalitarian justice, that is, whether its principles apply within a country’s borders (statism) or to the world as a whole (cosmopolitanism). It has been argued that, if one favors democratic egalitarianism, one is bound to favor statism; while, if one favors equality of opportunity, one should also favor cosmopolitanism. Hence democratic egalitarians face a dilemma: either they endorse statism, or they must explain why not. I show that the dilemma is much less problematic than it first seems, and that luck egalitarians actually face a similar dilemma. I then argue in favor of a variety of cosmopolitanism I dub global social egalitarianism.

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