Conclusion: Assessing the Prospects for Egalitarianism

Abstract

This book has sought to reassess the contemporary debate concerning egalitarianism. I hope to have been able to clarify some of the major disputes and some overlapping themes of the recent debate. What I have also tried to demonstrate is that achieving substantive equality continues to be an important and meaningful goal. However, I have also tried to show that there remain difficult issues for egalitarians to confront. Chief among these is whether egalitarianism has identified the most important sources of inequality and whether the positions that have been advanced are substantial enough to achieve significant types of equality between people.