Envy, Resentment, and Equality

Abstract

In this paper I contend that the unequal distribution of goods that people think should be objectively equally allocated generates a kind of envy or resentment that characterizes democratic equality. Since this formulation sounds as an objection against egalitarian distributions, my main contention here will be to vindicate a sense of envy or resentment that is specifically social and political in nature. I will argue that the social good of Self-respect links democratic equality with that kind of envy. In effect, this kind of envy arise in case that the unequality threatens the mutual recognition that citizens owe each other

Keywords

• envidia o resentimiento, igualitarismo, igualdad democrática, la naturaleza social del auto-respeto, rawls, rousseau sobre la autoestima