Oil and Water: Why Schouten’s Political Liberal Anatomy Cannot Accommodate Luck Egalitarianism

The Anatomy of Justice outlines a novel framework within liberal egalitarian political philosophy.One of her book's chief ambitions is to explain how two accounts of egalitarianism -'luck egalitarianism' and 'relational egalitarianism' -can be combined into a single coherent schema for thinking about justice.Schouten claims that this unification can be accomplished within a 'political liberal' framework.My main objection to Anatomy is that insofar as it purports to formulate a version of political liberalism, it cannot include a luck egalitarian component in its account of basic justice.My discussion proceeds in four parts.First, I provide some general background to the debate between luck and relational egalitarians.Second, I explain why luck egalitarianism is fundamentally incompatible with political liberalism.Third, I briefly note a concern with Anatomy's rejection of 'ideal theory'.Part four concludes.