Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like?

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In the UK, legislators do not spend as much time raising money for the next round of elections as they do in the USA, but they are amenable to the blandishments of those who provide them with second jobs or lobbyists who pay well for a friendly word in the right ear. What is to be done? One really radical proposal is to institute Athenian-style democracy – to choose parliaments through some form of random selection, creating a high probability that these assemblies will be truly representative. Chandler is less bold. He thinks, perhaps optimistically, that political parties are indispensable to democracy, formulating policy and championing their preferred causes. To avoid their capture by the folk with money and jobs to offer, he would forbid the private financing of parties and place the burden on the taxpayer instead. A magnificent attempt to apply fundamental philosophical principles to the practical building of a better world. Far-reaching and well-evidenced, it offers a new, coherent, principles-based approach to policy design Professor Lord Richard Layard His first book , Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like? , makes the case for a new progressive liberalism grounded in the ideas of the philosopher John Rawls, and will be published by Penguin/Allen Lane in Spring 2023. The second half of the book focuses on how these principles can then be implemented in places like the UK and the US. While there are references to Rawls' philosophy, this reads more like a manifesto for change than a direct analysis of Rawls' ideas. While this is nice to read and the ideas are interesting, it somehow feels disconnected from the first part (and unnecessarily constrained by the fact that Chandler is supposed to be talking about Rawls). I would prefer to read a book by Chandler discussing ideas from a much larger collection of thinkers, rather than a selection of those which he can directly apply to Rawls' ideas. Rawls’ core ideas – that we should protect basic freedoms, promote equality of opportunity and improve the lot of the disadvantaged – do not represent such a radical break from the status quo

We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. The insights from the original position experiment, which Rawls imagined would be so inspiring as to bind fractured societies together, are what Chandler thinks we need now, not only to make societies more equal, but to fill the moral vacuum at the heart of our politics. It is this, he argues, that “has made space for the rise of illiberal, antidemocratic populism”.Daniel Chandler is the most exciting new thinker on the scene, making the most complex of ideas digestible even for idiots like me. Free and Equal provides a refreshingly hopeful tonic for our cynical times. I gulped it down Hadley Freeman If Rawls is the answer, what is the question? Free and Equal suggests that Rawls has a distinctive moral vision that can help shift our political priorities. But that doesn’t quite seem right. There are radical and destabilising ideas out there in philosophy that would change everything if we took them seriously: deliberative democracy, cosmopolitanism and longtermism, to name three. Rawls’ core ideas – that we should protect basic freedoms, promote equality of opportunity and improve the lot of the disadvantaged – do not represent such a radical break from the status quo. They are values most people from across the political spectrum would claim to believe in, even if they fail to put them into practice. The real challenge facing Chandler and Rawls, then, is whether the book can convince people to follow through on the things they profess to believe in. Rawls’ arguments may be cogent, but I have my doubts that they have the rhetorical force to inspire and motivate people to effect change. As economist and philosopher Daniel Chandler argues in this hugely ambitious and exhilarating intervention, it is by rediscovering Rawls that we can find a way out of the escalating crises that are devastating our world today. Taking Rawls's humane and egalitarian liberalism as his starting point, Chandler builds a careful and ultimately irresistible case for a progressive agenda that would fundamentally reshape our societies for the better.

Philosopher John Rawls, whose ideas form the basis of Chandler’s book, in 1987. Photograph: Frederic Reglain/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images This is a book brimming with hope and possibility - a much-needed alternative to the cynicism that pervades our politics, setting out a 'realistic utopia' that can galvanise people from all walks of life. Free and Equal has the potential not only to transform contemporary debate, but to offer a touchstone for a modern, egalitarian liberalism for many years to come, cementing Rawls's place in political discourse, and firmly establishing Chandler as a vital new voice for our time. Clear, brave, compelling. This book shows how to put values at the heart of politics in a rigorous way, and is an important contribution to the future of progressive politics David MilibandYou may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial.

If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month. The writing of utopias has fallen out of fashion, whether because we are jaded, pessimistic about the chances of realising even a fraction of proposals that might be considered utopian, or for some other reason. Free and Equal is a breath of fresh air, therefore. It is unabashedly utopian in its proposals for social, economic, political and educational change. It is nonetheless perfectly realistic in the sense that few or none of Daniel Chandler’s proposals for a better world would be impossible to bring about if we had the gumption to try to do so. A tremendous book, timely, wise, authoritative and clear. The world will fall on it like tired labourers falling on a tray of donuts -- Stephen Fry While the impact of John Rawls’ work on (English-language) political philosophy in the post-war era can hardly be overstated, the same cannot be said of the sphere of public policy. Why is it so has probably a lot to do with both the complexity and rather theoretical nature of the argument, which can be quite puzzling - I remember one conversation with a prominent economist and deputy governor of a central bank in my home country about how “he is fine with the more philosophical approaches to social policy, like from Amartya Sen, but always gets lost around Rawls”. I don’t blame him. Very good read. Clear and informative with many practical policy implications. Part of an Overton window shift? Let's hope so.

A timely and thought-provoking look into society, Chandler's insights are much needed in today's world. F ree and Equal offers a well-written perspective on how we live today and provides hope in practical ways for economies to operate for the better in the future -- Rupal Patel Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth This is a fantastic book. More than ever, we need philosophers to participate in the public debate about inequality and sustainability. In Free and Equal Daniel Chandler provides us with the moral basis for an ambitious egalitarian agenda, and a roadmap for putting this into practice. It is a must-read! Thomas Piketty

This is superb work, in both explaining Rawls for general readers and in applying Rawlsian principles to contemporary problems of social and political justice ... It is impressive - clear, concise, thorough, and accessible Professor Samuel Freeman, author of Rawls and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Rawls Other ideas get more novel - like applying market-based solutions to things like declining revenues of serious media outlets or the impact of rich private donors on elections. Chandler proposes “democracy vouchers” of about 50 pounds for every voter, provided by the state, to spend during an election cycle. A version of this measure has been adopted in Seattle for local elections and seems to be working fine. Similarly, he proposes “media vouchers”, that would simulate markets in allowing people to support their favourite media outlets (tied to some specific conditions about transparency or truth in coverage). It is this support for not just private property and markets, but directly market-based incentives that can make Rawls’ ideas a bit uncomfortable for people on the more radical left. This is the revolutionary thought experiment proposed by the twentieth century’s greatest political philosopher, John Rawls. This is a book brimming with hope and possibility – a galvanising alternative to the cynicism that pervades our politics. Free and Equal has the potential not only to transform contemporary debate, but to offer a touchstone for a modern, egalitarian liberalism for many years to come, cementing Rawls’s place in political discourse, and firmly establishing Chandler as a vital new voice for our time. A beautifully written and compelling argument that Rawlsian political philosophy can heal our broken societies and make us, indeed, free and equal -- Professor Sir Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and author of Deaths of DespairAdams, Ansel. BORN FREE AND EQUAL - THE STORY OF LOYAL JAPANESE-AMERICANS, U.S. Camera, NY, 1944. 1st editioon. Wraps, 112pp., text and photos by Adams. Stains to the cover, a loss at the foot of the spine, foxing and brownng throughout; still a serviceable copy of one of the earliest accounts of the internent of American citizens of Japanese descent during WWII. Because of its strong foundations in philosophy, I think that Free and Equal compares favourably to the democratic socialist framework of Erik Olin Wright in Envisioning Real Utopias and How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century, as well as Thomas Piketty's A Brief History of Equality. Unfortunately, for anyone who is not a philosophy student or graduate, reading Rawls' dense work directly would probably be a waste of time. By explaining the philosophy of Rawls with a new and perfect balance of accessibility and depth, this is a fantastic contribution to public discourse. This is a fantastic book. More than ever, we need philosophers to participate in the public debate about inequality and sustainability. In Free and Equal Daniel Chandler provides us with the moral basis for an ambitious egalitarian agenda, and a roadmap for putting this into practice. It is a must-read! -- Thomas Piketty Critics of capitalism, however, have not confined themselves to assailing the impact of the well-off on politics. They have also complained about the absence both of an equitable distribution of income and wealth and of workplace democracy. Chandler shares their frustrations. His views on what might be done to remedy the more grotesque inequalities are modest enough, though they will appal libertarians and most Conservative voters. Given his enthusiasm for Rawls’s ‘worst off best off’ principle, it is unsurprising that his focus is heavily on improving the lot of the people at the bottom of the income and wealth scale. Slightly more surprising is the warm welcome Chandler gives to the idea of a universal basic income, paid to all adults at a rate of something like 60 per cent of the median income.