Ronald Dworkin, liberalism and equality

The article aims to provide an introduction to one of the dimensions of Ron ald Dworkin's political philosophy, his attempt to think the unity of polit ical liberalism and of economic liberalism under the concept of equality. I ts sets out Dworkin's argumentation, from Taking Rights Seriously (1977) to Foundations of Liberal Equality (1990), while taking account of the articl es on equality from 1981-1987. It is concerned more precisely to show how D workin, by progressively uncovering the moral foundation of the liberal ide al (of the system of fundamental freedoms, from constitutional democracy to the market economy), comes to define liberalism as a republicanism and can thus distinguish it clearly from both conservative and communitarian polit ical theories. The article proposes, particularly in its final section, an interpretation of this conception of liberalism, by confronting it with oth er contemporary political theories (Rawls, Larmore, Gauthier, Habermas).