Equality versus priority: A useful distinction

John Broome*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Both egalitarianism and prioritarianism give value to equality. Prioritarianism has an additively separable value function whereas egalitarianism does not. I show that in some cases prioritarianism and egalitarianism necessarily have different implications: I describe two alternatives G and H such that egalitarianism necessarily implies G is better than H whereas prioritarianism necessarily implies G and H are equally good. I also raise a doubt about the intelligibility of prioritarianism.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)219-228
Number of pages10
JournalEconomics and Philosophy
Volume31
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 May 2015
Externally publishedYes

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