ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author defines one version of the principle of equality, and discusses its justification in terms of some weak rationality or consistency conditions on political argument. The terms ‘formal’ and ‘procedural’ are suggestive of the principle being concerned with the way in which we go about making political decisions, rather than the specific content of those decisions. Equality in this sense will be applicable to the use of any political principle, irrespective of the distribution of benefits it stipulates. For all procedural equality merely states is a way of applying or not applying a rule under particular circumstances. There is, however, a strong feeling that the procedural form of equality imposes a burden of proof upon the proponents of inequality. The egalitarian will argue that the best consequences are to be identified with a state of affairs in which there are equal levels of net benefit.
