Living As Equals

by Barker, Paul; Atkinson, A. B.; Dworkin, Ronald; Hirschman, Albert O.; Hobsbawm, E. J.; Sen, Amartya; Wedderburn, Dorothy

• ISBN13: 9780198295181
• ISBN10: 0198295189
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-07-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This is a collection of essays by six prominent social scientists on the ideal of economic and social equality and the ways, if any, in which public action can help to achieve it. * Amartya Sen offers an overview of how equality can be furthered by public action. * A. B. Atkinson proposes an official poverty line in Britain as a way to focus public debate and political action. * E. J. Hobsbawm explores the tensions within the rival demands of language, nation, and culture. * Dorothy Wedderburn argues the case for the superiority of public action in relation to the National Health Service. * Albert O. Hirschman scrutinizes the rhetorical devices used to counter proposals for reform. * Ronald Dworkin demonstrates that liberty and equality are not, as some argue, in conflict.

Author Biography

Paul Barker is the former editor of New Society, and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Community Studies, London.

Table of Contents

Editor's Introduction

Social commitment and democracy: the demands of equity and financial conservatism

Do Liberty and Equality Conflict?

Two hundred years of reactionary rhetoric: the futility thesis

Are all tongues equal? language, culture, and national identity

The superiority of collective action: the case of the National Health Service

Measuring up to the fight: the case for an official poverty line

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.