Discussion Paper – Equalities Policy Under the Coalition: Time for a New Approach?
- What’s the difference between fairness and equality?
- Would a capabilities approach provide a means of moving beyond existing disagreement?
- Why should we care?
In the first of our discussion papers series, 2020PSH argues that the time is ripe for a radical rethink of the objectives of equalities policy. The Coalition Government has recently celebrated its first anniversary in power, and whilst there have been significant changes to equalities in that time, it seems clear that there is little strategic vision underpinning these policy actions, still less an understanding of how equalities can be used as a bedrock to inform other social policies.
The paper introduces the capabilities approach – suggested previously in work for the 2020 Commission on Public Services – as a potential means of uniting the disparate strands of current policy and using them to generate social value. Indeed, we propose that orienting public services to enable people to live valuable lives regardless of their starting points will be socially and economically productive. On this, our argument chimes very strongly with the focus of the Coalition, but far more could be done to realise their policy goals.
We envisage this as being the first stage of an ongoing collaborative research agenda, recognising human needs within policy.
Download the paper here.
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[...] Equalities Policy under the Coalition: Time for a New Approach? The Coalition Government has recently celebrated its first anniversary in power, and whilst there have been significant changes to equalities policy in that time, the paper argues that there is little strategic vision underpinning these developments, and insufficient still less an understanding of how equalities can be used as a bedrock to inform other social policies. This discussion paper introduces the capabilities approach – suggested previously in work for the 2020 Commission on Public Services – as a potential means of uniting the disparate strands of current policy and using them to generate social value. [...]
[...] Discussion Paper – Equalities Policy Under The Coalition: Time For A New Approach?: What’s the difference between fairness and equality? Would a capabilities approach provide a means of moving beyond existing disagreement? Why should we care? https://2020psh.org/?p=401 [...]