PUBL0023 Equality, Justice and Difference

Instructions

Write an essay in response to ONE of the questions listed below. Word limit: 3,000 words

Questions

1. Do liberals have to choose between the ideals of autonomy and toleration?

2. On which grounds, if any, can the toleration of non-liberal groups be justified?

3. Is the ‘politics of difference’ better defended as a set of permanent mechanisms for the public affirmation of group differences, or as a set of transitional mechanisms for the reduction of group inequalities?

4. Liberal theory is incapable of coming to grips with structural oppression’. Discuss.

5. The problem with affirmative action is that it uses a morally irrelevant characteristic as if it were morally relevant, and thus still treats people unjustly.’ Discuss.

6. Is the better justification for affirmative action programmes to compensate people for past injustice, or for present disadvantage? Focus your answer on one example of affirmative action.

7. Is deliberative democracy a fair and effective way to address the claims of disadvantaged groups?

8. What role, if any, should activism play in democratic politics?

9. May democratic activism permissibly include civil disobedience?

10. ‘If the prison cannot be justified, then it should be abolished.’ Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? Focus your answer on one jurisdiction.

11. What is ‘recognition’? Is it important?

12. To what extent should the liberal state be committed to secularism?

13. How convincing is the paternalist, autonomy-based argument for the ban on Muslim headscarves in French state schools?

14. Discuss Will Kymlicka’s claim that national minorities but not immigrant groups are entitled to the protection of their societal culture.

15. Can cultural rights be grounded in the value of personal autonomy?

16. A theory that has the implication that minorities have a fundamental right to violate liberal principles is not a liberal theory of group rights’ (Brian Barry). Is this a fair judgement on Will Kymlicka’s theory of group-differentiated rights?

17. Egalitarians should compensate for the real costs that stem from disadvantages but not for the costs that stem from people’s beliefs’ (Brian Barry). Discuss.

18. How extensive is the state’s interest in the education of children? Use the case of Wisconsin v. Yoder to illustrate your argument.

19. Can Quebec’s linguistic policies be justified? If so, how? If not, why not?

20. Are cultural and religious exemptions from general laws a violation of liberal equality?

21. What is special about religion, such that it should benefit from exemptions from general laws?

22. Should a group’s illiberal practices be tolerated so long as its members are free to leave it?

23. Can multiculturalism be good for women?