Equality of nothing? Social justice on the British Left, c.1911-31

This article examines debates about social justice on the British Left during the early twentieth century. Prevailing interpretations of these writings either position them within a simplistic dichotomy between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome, or else conclude that they lack the conceptual sophistication that characterizes later thinking about social justice. This article argues that these approaches are mistaken, and accords more detailed attention to the way in which key social democratic ideologists understood and then organized certain concepts into a theory of social justice that could influence political practice. Particular attention is paid to the decontestations of the concepts of function, merit, need and incentive, and to the respect in which the combination of these concepts resulted in a view of social justice that was egalitarian. In conclusion, it is argued that previous accounts of the Left's conception of social justice have neglected its theoretical complexity and misunderstood the sense in which it was egalitarian.