Q. Offer a critique of what John Rawls meant by ‘Fair Equality of Opportunity’
Introduction:
The purpose of this essay is to discuss what ‘Fair Equality of Opportunity’ means and John Rawls view point on this subject. Rawls was a well known philosopher from the USA and arguably the most important political philosopher of the 20th century. Rawls is well known for using the basic structure of society as his subject matter and most famously for his work entitled, A Theory of Justice (1971). Here he explains how the “logical ordering of principles of justice can help to structure and regulate an ideal structure society” (John Rawls, 2003) This is not to say that the theory of justice principles can be used to restore justice to society,…show more content… (2001). This same example can be applied to a wider society and hence prove that if no one is made accountable and everyone is equal in what they do and earn then society cannot function as well, there needs to be a certain level of inequality and leadership to ensure everyone does their bit to contribute towards a fully functioning society. So although total equality is an unrealistic and possibly undesirable expectation it is fair to say that the gap between the rich and poor appears to be getting bigger so Rawls principles do have a place in today’s society and “applying the principle of equal opportunities is therefore a means of trying to correct these deficiencies: ensuring that everyone is subjected to the same rules” (welfare theories book, p.26-7).
However in the theories of welfare it states; “Giving everybody an equal start in life (starting-line equality) might imply introducing a system of publicly funded education so that success in life derives from talents and hard work rather than luck and accidents of birth”. This has been somewhat achieved by the government in the last 60 years when they bought the education in where
