Urs Lindner presents a working paper on ‚Antidiscrimination, Equal Opportunity, and Equal Representation. An Egalitarian Justification of Quotas‘

The article develops an egalitarian justification of quotas. Its suggestion is, first, to differentiate between quotas as goals and quotas as a means. Second, three requirements for an egalitarian justification are introduced: it has to be demonstrated that 1) the ideal is desirable, that 2) quotas bring us closer to this ideal, and that 3) objections claiming their impermissibility fail. The article explores anti-discrimination, equality of opportunity and equal representation as desirable egalitarian ideals that are situated on the levels of procedural, distributive and relational justice. It argues that anti-discrimination is advanced by both quotas as a means and as goals, whereas equality of opportunity is primarily served by quotas as a means and equal representation by quotas as goals. Finally, it is indicated that the objections from reverse discrimination, merit violation, stigmatization and social partition are unfounded. Integrating three common egalitarian ideals, this three-step argument constitutes a comprehensive egalitarian justification of quotas.