Más allá del diálogo sobre la igualdad. Observaciones críticas sobre la diferencia y la desigualdad en Equality de Michael Sandel y Thomas Piketty

Abstract

The review analyzes Equality: What It Means and Why It Matters, a dialogue between Thomas Piketty and Michael Sandel and derived from a prior academic conversation. The present text situates the contemporary discussion on equality beyond the slogan of «equality of opportunity», proposing three articulated dimensions: economic equality (income, wealth, and taxation); political equality (the effective capacity to influence collective decisions in the face of material asymmetries); and equality of dignity/respect/esteem (the social recognition of work and of persons). Drawing on classical debates–primary goods and distributive justice, as well as the turn toward capabilities–the review emphasizes that inequality is not natural but rather an institutional construction subject to democratic correction. The review concludes that merit, when imposed as a distributive criterion, erodes solidarity and the communal function of citizenship. Thus, the public agenda confronts the tension between the public ethics of just distribution and the common good, on the one hand, and the global efficiency of merit, on the other.