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Equality and Legitimacy: A Critical Review

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Notes

  1. That is in the absence of any constitutional rights that may act as output constrains on decisions taken by the majority.

  2. Examples here are thinkers such as Bentham, Burke, Hume, Hegel and Marx.

  3. This proves that democratic procedures are not utilitarian in nature however only in this respect.

  4. See also Cohen (1989) for a less pessimistic conclusion than Sadurski's.

  5. Thomas Nagel (1979) treatment of equality develops a persuasive argument in favour of this classification.

  6. To make things easier for the reader I should explain here that I use misfortune as synonymous to ‘luck’. Discussions of ‘Luck Egalitarianism’ often resolve around a distinction between ‘option’ and ‘brute’ luck that some readers of this review may find confusing.

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Efthymiou, D. Equality and Legitimacy: A Critical Review. Eur Polit Sci 7, 411–421 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/eps.2008.34

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