The Constitution of Equality

In this ambitious book, Christiano sets out to justify liberal democracy as an intrinsically just realization of public equality. Though the political recommendations are familiar, and no stage of the argument is particularly original, the scope of the project is unusual. Starting from the quasi‐Kantian claim that human beings are ‘authorities in the realm of value’, Christiano argues for the equal promotion of interests. Rejecting common philosophical accounts of equality as partisan, he argues that if we recognize the prevalence of diversity, fallibility and cognitive bias, then the only way we can ensure all are treated as equals, and able to see that they are, is to give each an equal say in shaping their common world. Thus democracy emerges as not only a requirement of justice but one that pre‐empts other, outcome‐orientated, concerns. Citizens are able to advance their more controversial conceptions of justice and equality through democratic procedures, but they must respect democratic outcomes, since to impose one's conception of equality on others is itself to treat them as inferiors and make it likely that their interests will be set back

Argument (complex analysis) · Constitution · Democracy · Diversity (politics) · Economic Justice · Economics · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Public reason · Realm · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics