PHM-Exch> London Review of Books: Who benefits from equality?

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) <ruglucia at paho.org>
crossposted from: EQUIDAD at listserv.paho.org


 *How messy it all is*

*David Runciman: Who benefits from equality?**

*

*Comment on: *

*The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better**
*by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett

**

*London** Review of Books, 22 October 2009

*

            Available at: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n20/runc01_.html

 “……There is enough evidence here that equality is a good thing to be able
to take it on faith, and to move away from evidence-based politics towards a
politics that is, for want of a better word, more ideological. Wilkinson and
Pickett are committed to evidence-based politics because they seem to feel
that ideology has had its day. ‘Political differences are more a reflection
of different beliefs about the solution to problems than of disagreements
about what the problems are,’ they write. ‘Almost everyone, regardless of
their politics, would prefer to live in a safer and more friendly society.’
But they also reveal a hankering for something more. ‘For several decades
progressive politics have been seriously weakened by the loss of any concept
of a better society. People have argued for piecemeal improvements in
different areas of life . . .

 But nowhere is there a popular movement capable of inspiring people with a
vision of how to make society a substantially better place to live for the
vast majority. Without that vision, politics will rarely provoke more than a
yawn.’ More equality is a good thing and it’s an idea that’s worth
defending. It would be nice if there were more politicians willing to stand
up and defend it, however they saw fit. That may be wishful thinking. But so
too is the idea of an evidence-based politics, which just opens the door to
all the prevarications of joined-up thinking…..”

*David Runciman* <http://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/runc01> teaches politics
at Cambridge.
He is the author of *Pluralism and the Personality of the State*, *The
Politics of Good Intentions* and *Political Hypocrisy*.
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