基本説明
Examines the relationship between the idea of legitimacy of law in a democratic system and equality.
Full Description
This book examines the relationship between the idea of legitimacy of law in a democratic system and equality, conceived in a tripartite sense: political, legal, and social. Exploring the constituent elements of the legal philosophy underlying concepts of legitimacy, this book seeks to demonstrate how a conception of democratic legitimacy is necessary for understanding and reconciling equality and political legitimacy by tracing and examining the conceptions of equality in political, legal, and social dimensions.
In the sphere of political equality this book argues that the best construction of equality in a democratic system - which resonates with the legitimizing function of majority rule - is that of equality of political opportunity. It is largely procedural, but those procedures represent important substantive values built into a majoritarian system. In the sphere of legal equality it argues that a plausible conception of non-discrimination can be constructed through a "reflective equilibrium" process, and should reject a thoughtless assumption that the presence of some particular criteria of differentiations necessarily taints a legal classification as discriminatory. Finally, the chapters on social equality explore, in some detail, the currently influential, and presumptively attractive, "luck egalitarianism": the idea that social equality calls for neutralizing the disparate effects of bad brute luck upon a person's position in society.
Contents
Introduction ; 1. Law's Legitimacy and Democracy ; Legitimacy of Law and the "Service Conception" of Authority ; Authority and Identification of Valid Law ; "Service Conception" and Democracy ; Justification and Obligation ; "Democracy without Values"? ; "Democracy without values" in the constitutional sense ; Conclusion ; 2. Political Equality and Majority Rule ; Majority Rule and legitimacy: a Shortcut Link? ; Majority Rule and Intensity of Preferences ; Vote Trading and Equality ; Majority Rule, Unanimity and Equal Respect ; Majority Rule an the "Aggregation of Wills" ; Outcomes and Procedures: "Detached" and "Dependent" Conceptions of Democracy ; Equality of Influence, of Impact, and of Political Opportunity ; Equality of Political Opportunity and Majority Rule ; Conclusion ; 3. Legal Equality ; Equality before and in the Law ; Equality in Law: A Non-Negotiable, Fundamentally Ambiguous Ideal ; The "No Differential Treatment" Standard ; Per se Theories and Immutable Characteristics ; Relevance, Circularity, and Levels of Scrutiny ; Suspectness and Discrimination ; Conclusion ; 4. Social Equality (I): The Contours of Social Equality ; Social Equality: Individualized and Collective ; "Natural and Social Lottery" ; Self-Ownership and the "Extensions" of a Right over One's Body ; Self: Thick and Thin ; Common Pool of Natural Abilities? ; Conclusion ; 5. Social Equality (II): Luck Egalitarianism and Its Limits ; Luck and Responsibility in "Luck Egalitarianism" ; Luck Egalitarianism and Moral Intuitions about Equality ; Equality of Resources, of Welfare, and the Status of Preferences ; Persons, Circumstances and Talents in Luck Egalitarianism ; Resources and Welfare: Shortening the Gap ; How Egalitarian is Luck Egalitarianism?
