Oxford Scholarship Online: Egalitarianism and the Generation of Inequality

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Subject: Economics and Finance Book Title: Egalitarianism and the Generation of Inequality

Egalitarianism and the Generation of Inequality Phelps Brown, Henry, Emeritus Professor of Economics of Labour, University of London Print publication date: 1988 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2003 Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-828648-6 doi:10.1093/0198286481.001.0001
Abstract: The belief that the existing distributions of income and wealth in Western countries are unjust has come to be widely held, and has prompted the inclusion of egalitarian measures in many political programmes. This work uses the methods of reasoned history and comparative statistics to arrive at an assessment of egalitarianism. The book is intended for economists, economic historians, political historians, sociologists, and political philosophers. It is arranged in three parts. Part I, The rise of egalitarianism, provides a history of egalitarianism starting from early principles in ancient Greece and progressing through to the ‘modern’ egalitarianism in the twentieth century. It examines how the change came about from regarding equality as necessitating differentiated treatment of different kinds of people to modern egalitarian attitudes. There are eight chapters, of which the last is a review. Part II, Distributions of income and wealth in the living economy, which has eight chapters, is essentially a statistical study of income and wealth distribution. Part III, Egalitarianism analysed and assessed, has two chapters, and assesses contemporary egalitarianism as a practical policy. Keywords: egalitarianism, equality, history, income distribution, inequality, sociology, wealth distribution Table of Contents Full Book Contents Introduction Part 1. The Rise of Egalitarianism 1. Early Principles of Equality and Inequality 2. The Transition to Liberalism 3. The Equality of Man in the Eighteenth Century 4. Eighteenth-Century Developments Propitious to Egalitarianism 5. Action Delayed 6. The Movement into Redistribution 7. The Formation of Modern Egalitarianism 8. Issues and Influences Reviewed Part II. Distributions of Income and Wealth in the Living Economy 9. Distributions Displayed 10. The Form of Recent Distributions of Income 11. The Historical Course of Change in the Distribution of Income 12. The Redistribution of Income 13. The Distribution of Wealth in Some Contemporary Economies 14. The Historical Course of Change in the Distribution of Wealth 15. The Formation of Distributions of Income and Wealth 16. The Significance of the Statistical Record Part III. Egalitarianism Analysed and Assessed 17. The Basis of Egalitarianism 18. An Assessment of Egalitarianism Bibliography Index

doi:10.1093/0198286481.001.0001