Political Research Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, 33, no. “Some Ways Of Thinking About Equality Of Opportunity”. Notes: This paper examines the meaning of equality of opportunity from the perspective of a teacher dividing her time and attention among students, considering whether any of the various conceptions of equality of opportunity provides us with satisfactory guidance and whether they contradict one another. “Whom Must We Treat Equally For Educational Opportunity To Be Equal?”. It concludes that equality of opportunity is not an ideal to be achieved but a policy goal as its pursuit brings about valuable effects Notes: This paper surveys a number of common ways of understanding the ideal of equality of opportunity, and raises some problems with it. The paper also argues that equality of opportunity is not an ideal to be realized but one to aim for.įrankel, Charles. Notes: This paper argues that equality of opportunity for social positions implies that we accept meritocracy, but we need not attach unequal rewards to positions.
Political Studies, Political Studies, 17, no. “The Idea Of Equality As A Substantive Principle Of Society”. Carter pays particular attention to the notion of respect and draws out implications of the basis of equality for the appropriate currency of justice, which is to be equalized among persons.Ĭharvet, John. Notes: This paper explores answers to the question of why people are equals and in respect of what features they are so. Notes: This paper focuses on ‘opportunity’ within the concept of equality of opportunity as a type of freedom and discusses possible justifications of various commonly held conceptions of equality of opportunity.Ĭarter, Ian. If we are to understand what the most desirable form of Equality of Opportunity is, we will have to examine different ‘conceptions’ of the idea, which specify the agents, obstacles and goals in different ways. This has led critics to claim that Equality of Opportunity has been stretched so much that is no longer has determinate or useful meaning. Indeed, if all we know about a politician is that she is in favor of Equality of Opportunity we are in no position to know what sorts of policies she will favor. The examples also show that the concept itself is quite empty. The examples collectively show that we care about each separate aspect of equality of opportunity, the agents, the obstacles and the goals, and how they are specified will affect how attractive that statement is as a social ideal.
The third example illustrates how very many obstacles to some goal could be removed, but the value of the opportunity may be diminished merely by the modesty of the goal. This may be considered a pretty lousy opportunity, but it is an opportunity nonetheless. These may be extremely powerful obstacles in a society punctuated by religious pluralism and socio-economic inequality. In the second statement, non-whites are not guaranteed an equal opportunity, but even among whites socio-economic or religious discrimination are not condemned. So, for instance, in the first statement, poor women may be discriminated against and so have a more difficult time attaining a college degree than wealthy men.
Though the goals are the same in the first two statements they differ in the obstacles that may remain and in the groups that are singled out. This is because they differ in terms of the agents, obstacles and goals they specify.
The examples above provide us with statements of Equality of Opportunity, but they differ in their attractiveness as social ideals. Here are some examples of statements of equality of opportunity to illustrate the flexibility of the concept.Īll Americans should have a chance to attain a college degree without the hindrance of racial discrimination.Īll whites should have a chance to attain a college degree without the hindrance of gender discrimination.Īll Americans should have a chance to attain literacy without the hindrance of any obstacle other than severe disability precluding the attainment of literacy. Equality of Opportunity obtains when agents have a chance to attain the same goal(s) without the hindrance of the same obstacle(s). According to this formula, agent(s) have an opportunity when they have a chance to attain a specified goal(s) without the hindrance of some obstacle(s). The most influential philosophical analysis of the opportunity and equality components of the phrase provides us with a simple formula. Before we accept Equality of Opportunity as a social ideal we must first ask the most basic question: What is the concept of Equality of Opportunity? When we respond to this question, our response in part must account for what makes something a statement of Equality of Opportunity rather than a statement of some other principle we may care about, such as Equality of Outcome.