Jacobs Lesley A. Pursuing Equal Opportunities: The Theory and Practice of Egalitarian Justice

Cambridge University Press, 2004. - 296 p.Pursuing Equal Opportunities: The Theory and Practice of Egalitarian Justice offers original and innovative contributions to the debate about equality of opportunity. Pursuing equality is an important challenge for any modern democratic society but this challenge faces two sets of difficulties: the theoretical question of what sort of equality to pursue and for whom, and the practical question concerning which legal and political institutions are the most appropriate vehicles for implementing egalitarian social policy and thus realizing egalitarian justice.
Part I sets out a theory of equality of opportunity that presents equal opportunities as a normative device for the regulation of competition for scarce resources. Parts II, III, and IV shift the focus to the consideration of the practical application by courts or legislatures or public policy makers of policies for addressing, respectively, racial, class, or gender injustices in Canada and the United States. The author examines in depth standardized tests in universities and colleges, affirmative action, workfare, universal health care, comparable worth, and the economic consequences of divorce.
Pursuing Equal Opportunities is unique in combining political and legal theory and cutting-edge socio-legal research, as well as in offering an overview of the concept of equality of opportunity and its history and application. As such, it will be of particular interest to professionals and graduate students in social and political philosophy, political science, law, sociology, and education.
Lesley A. Jacobs is Associate Professor and Director of the Law & Society Program at York University, Toronto.