Economic Inequality and the Permissibility of Leveling Down
In this paper I argue that the political and economic domains are analogous for distributive purposes. The upshot of this conclusion is that because we normally think that an unequal distribution of votes is objectionable even if these inequalities are strictly necessary to improve the lives of less...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2023
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| In: |
Ethical theory and moral practice
Year: 2023, Volume: 26, Issue: 5, Pages: 803-832 |
| IxTheo Classification: | NCC Social ethics NCD Political ethics NCE Business ethics VA Philosophy ZC Politics in general ZE Economy / Economics |
| Further subjects: | B
Political Equality
B Economic inequality B Leveling down B The Leveling Down Objection B relational equality |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this paper I argue that the political and economic domains are analogous for distributive purposes. The upshot of this conclusion is that because we normally think that an unequal distribution of votes is objectionable even if these inequalities are strictly necessary to improve the lives of less informed voters, so we should conclude that an unequal distribution of resources might be similarly objectionable even if strictly necessary to make the worse off better off. Leveling down economic resources is therefore sometimes morally permissible. I consider and reject three types of objections to this view. |
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| ISSN: | 1572-8447 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Ethical theory and moral practice
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s10677-023-10411-2 |
