The topics considered in this chapter are the issues over which different ideologies of government conflict most directly. The concepts of equality, social justice and the welfare state all imply that government and the state will act deliberately to bring about social and economic changes in society. Redistribution, also considered in this chapter, is included in so far as it is done purposively.

For neoliberals, state activity in these areas is largely illegitimate: Nozick condemns the attempt to impose rules on society (or at least, rules that go beyond individualism, property, and defence), and Hayek dismisses the idea of social justice as a ‘mirage’. At the opposing pole, social democrats would argue there is a moral duty to make society fairer and better.

There has been a tendency, in political debate, to represent these principles as ideals – models of what a society might look like. There are two profound objections to that approach. The first objection is made by Walzer, from a communitarian perspective:

The second objection is a pragmatic one, made by Crosland. The process of reforming society has to begin somewhere, and the effect of any social action will be to change the conditions that are being addressed. It follows, he argued, that working to a model or blueprint is self-defeating.