Abstract
The literature on relational equality is “booming,” yet the life of the idea is strange. Thirty years after Elizabeth Anderson’s seminal article, “What is the Point of Equality?”, many scholars sympathetic to the idea suggest that the meaning of relational equality is vague. Relational equality seeks to shift the focus from distributive justice to social relations; its framework often presumes equality as the norm and treats hierarchy as an anomaly that requires justification. But what if the challenges of defining relational equality stem from its framework? Hierarchy is pervasive in human societies, and at least some exist for good reason. In this paper, we begin to sketch out a theory of equality that starts from the importance of democratic equality and the inevitability of hierarchy. Weaving normative argument with empirical evidence (including survey results), our nascent theory of equality begins where we are and not with a supposedly new definition of equality.
Biography
During his fellowship year, Jeff Spinner-Halev will work on a book tentatively entitled “Does Hierarchy Always Undermine Democratic Equality?” A common view among democratic theorists is that hierarchy always opposes equality. Hierarchy and status differences are inescapable, however. This book moves beyond the simple dichotomy and examines how democratic equality co-exists with hierarchical institutions and how they constrain each other. This book will explore when and how hierarchy undermines democratic equality and when it does not, by empirically examining the views of equality held by ordinary citizens. This book will present a new approach to understanding equality, offering insights for both political theorists and social scientists. Spinner-Halev has a second, smaller project called “What does it Mean to Live with Injustice?”
Spinner-Halev is the Kenan Eminent Professor of Political Ethics at UNC-Chapel Hill. He has long-standing research interests in the political ramifications of group identity and the relationship between majorities and minorities in different parts of the world. He is the author of several books and many articles; his most recent book (co-authored with Elizabeth Theiss-Morse) is Respect and Loathing in American Democracy: Polarization, Moralization, and the Undermining of Equality (University of Chicago Press, 2024).