What is fairness - a range of perspectives

Fairness lies in the eye of the beholder. The coalition government’s spending review is due shortly and there will be no shortage of animated discussion about the impact of deep spending cuts on different groups and in the provision of goods and services. This attempt to make a step-change in the size of the state raises hugely important questions about efficiency and equity in allocating scarce resources among competing uses. BBC Radio 4 has been discussing the concept of fairness all this week as a prelude to the Spending Review.

In this feature article, philosopher Dr Angie Hobbs explains the philosophy of fairness and the resource also contains some interesting discussions from the radio on the fairness concept (good for auditory learners).

Here is a brief selection of other resources linked to the fairness agenda:

Spending cuts that fail the fairness test (FT)

Paddy O’Connell (BBC Radio 4) looks at inter-generational fairness

Will Hutton (The Guardian) We deserve a fair society, but it won’t be created by a vendetta against the poor

Fairness: The history of an idea (BBC radio 4 discussion) Angie Hobbs of Warwick University and social historian David Kynaston discuss the history of the idea