Rethinking Equal Opportunity

"Drawing on decades of experience as a poverty-alleviation educator and inter-institutional leader, Harlan Beckley invites us to consider what ""equality of opportunity"" really means, beyond a trite synonym for the American Dream. What he offers is a nuanced, realistic, and socially embedded interpretation of human capability and freedom, where no one is guaranteed specific successes, but all citizens are empowered to pursue a vision of the good life, unencumbered by food, housing, health, or educational deficiencies, and unimpeded by gender and racial biases. In arguing for a collective responsibility to maximize human capability, Beckley draws on the insight of John Rawls, Martha Nussbaum, Amartya Sen, and Michael Sandel (among others), and in the second half of the book he offers a rich policy discussion of what structural commitment to freedom of opportunity in the US would require. Rethinking Equal Opportunity is a helpful contribution to the discourse around poverty alleviation, suitable for experts, undergraduates, and invested citizens alike. --James Calvin Davis, George Adams Ellis Professor, Middlebury College Harlan Beckley has done a remarkable job of integrating the theoretical case for equal opportunity with the policy questions that shape current debates. Rethinking Equal Opportunity offers a comprehensive review of the strategies for increasing opportunity and a moral argument for equality that links these strategies to our political history and our understanding of human nature. --Robin W. Lovin, Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics Emeritus, Southern Methodist University Harlan Beckley's book offers a careful and powerful rethinking of equal opportunity. Deeply grounded in both theoretical and practical debates, it presents a rich account of equal opportunity as a central part of justice and draws out its implications for institutions, policies, and practices. Interested readers will find this account quite illuminating as will students in undergraduate and graduate courses. I enthusiastically recommend it. --James F. Childress, Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia This is an important book for anyone concerned with public policy. Readers will readily appreciate how the formal principle of fair opportunity is wholly dependent on the substantive principle of human capability. The former pertains to social structures: the latter to human agency. The author's discussion is altogether captivating. --Peter J. Paris, Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor Emeritus of Christian Social Ethics, Princeton Theological Seminary"