Politics

Is Equal Opportunity Enough?

Focusing on opportunities instead of outcomes is misguided—politically and philosophically.

  • Christine Sypnowich
with responses from
  • Gina Schouten
  • Martin O’Neill
  • Nicholas Vrousalis
  • Anne Phillips
  • William M. Paris
  • Leah Gordon
  • Claude S. Fischer
  • Zofia Stemplowska
  • Lane Kenworthy
  • John Roemer
  • Ravi Kanbur

Why Inequality Is Unjust

Outcomes shape opportunities.

  • Gina Schouten

No Equality without Liberal Equality

There must be room for choice.

  • Zofia Stemplowska

The American Way

Public opinion doesn’t support equal outcomes.

  • Claude S. Fischer

Equality of Results Revisited

The history of debates about educational outcomes holds important lessons.

  • Leah Gordon

The Art of Equality

Egalitarianism raises our expectations.

  • William M. Paris

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Beyond Choice

Choice talk distracts from structural injustice.

  • Anne Phillips

That’s Not Socialism

The aim is a classless society, not equal outcomes.

  • Nicholas Vrousalis

The Radicalism of Equal Opportunity

It doesn’t entail an embrace of the status quo.

  • Martin O’Neill

Use with Extreme Caution

Opportunities are hard to measure.

  • Ravi Kanbur

Designing for Outcomes

Equal opportunity theory is a flexible tool.

  • John Roemer

How to Promote Flourishing

We should follow the Nordic model.

  • Lane Kenworthy

Equality Matters

Final response: we need a more substantive and generous understanding of the egalitarian ideal.

  • Christine Sypnowich

May Day and the Movement for Shorter Working Hours

International Workers’ Day is an occasion to build solidarity and rethink political economy.

When Courts Matter

The courts have become a flashpoint in the United States and Israel—but for very different reasons.

  • Jacob S. Abolafia
  • Jonathan S. Gould

Presidential Crimes

Trump’s indictment and arrest break with decades of executive impunity.

Iraq, Twenty Years Later

How the militarization of politics continues to destabilize Iraq decades after the U.S.-led invasion.

  • Simona Foltyn

Yes, Tax the Rich—and Also the Merely Affluent

For years the left has rallied around taxing the 1 percent, but this group is too narrow.

  • Alex Raskolnikov

Women of the World, Unite!

A reading list for International Women’s Day

Animal Rights Are Human Rights

On the imperative of inter-species solidarity.

The Future of the Welfare State

Strengthening social insurance programs will require a break from politics as usual.

The World Speculation Made

Contemporary life has been deeply molded by financialization. But the speculative imagination can also be a tool for building a more just world.

  • Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou

Is Humanitarian Intervention Possible?

Using military force to solve humanitarian crises gained popularity after the Cold War, but decades of foreign policy blunders have called it into question.

The Black Scholars Ron DeSantis Doesn’t Want Students to Read

Among them are Kimberlé Crenshaw, Angela Davis, bell hooks, and Robin D. G. Kelley. You can read them here.

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