Habits of Inequality

Abstract

In this paper, I define and defend the radical egalitarian distinction between individual acts and systemic or institutional patterns. My intended audience is both radical and liberal egalitarians; I assume that liberal and radical egalitarianism are neither mutually exclusive nor theoretically incompatible. I begin by sketching a liberal theory of institutions, and then extend this theory in radical directions. I argue that there are important informal as well as formal social institutions, such as language, morality, customs, and etiquette. Following that. I argue that some forms of discrimination and privilege are institutionalized, and that institutional forms differ in kind from individual ones. Of course, I do not deny either the existence or the wrongness of the individual forms. However, I argue that the institutional forms both are more prevalent and have worse moral and political effects than the individual ones. Hence they are the proper focus of (radical) egalitarian concern.