Relational Egalitarianism is Not about Egalitarian Relationships

That equality is an essential part of justice – or even that justice just is some kind of equality – has been central to the way many people have thought about equality and justice at least since the American and French revolutions. The idea that all plausible theories of justice are on the same “egalitarian plateau”, or that equality is the “presumption” when it comes to justice, has been influential in English-language political philosophy for more than half a century. John Rawls is credited specifically with the conception of justice as fundamentally “distributive”. G.A. Cohen encapsulated that whole era of political philosophy when he said that distributive egalitarians take it “for granted that there is something which justice requires people to have equal amounts of…”

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