Living as Equals

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. FROM REVIEWS 'This is the reformist left at its best' Times Literary Secretary 'Humanitarian and indeed radical essays' IJournal of Economic Literature 'The puzzle is, what do you do about the worst-off amongst us? Spend more on them? Whose money?' 'Its publication could scarcely be better timed' Times Higher Education SupplementTable of ContentEditor'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