Equality and Transparency: A Strategic Perspective on Affirmative Action in American Law (CERI Series in International Relations and Political Economy) [Hardcover]

Daniel Sabbagh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1403963827 | ISBN-13: 978-1403963826 | Edition: First Edition

Can affirmative action policies be convincingly justified? And how have they been legitimized over time? In a pluridisciplinary perspective at the intersection of political theory and the sociology of law, Daniel Sabbagh criticizes the two prevailing justifications put forward in favor of affirmative action: the corrective justice argument and the diversity argument. He defends the policy instead as an instrument designed to bring about the deracialization of American society. In this respect, however, affirmative action requires a measure of dissimulation in order to succeed. Equality and Transparency explains why this is so and provides a new interpretation of the strategic component in the Supreme Court's case law while identifying some of its most remarkable side effects.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Equality and Transparency is an erudite and analytically innovative study of affirmative action. It is particularly original and incisive in its treatment of the problematic aspects of the "diversity" rationale.  I do not know of a more balanced and comprehensive treatment of the subject."
--George M. Fredrickson, Edgar E. Robinson Professor of United States History Emeritus, Stanford University

 

"From the time America's Constitution-makers protected slavery without daring to use the word, the nation's leaders have often engaged in euphemism and misdirection when trying to maintain and trying to transform the nation's pervasive patterns of racial inequality.  Daniel Sabbagh's incisive study shows how today's Supreme Court continues that pattern, not daring either to end racial affirmative action or to embrace openly all the reasons why it is still needed. A superb book."

--Rogers M. Smith, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania   

About the Author

Daniel Sabbagh is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre d'études et de recherches internationales (CERI-Sciences Po). His current work focuses on antidiscrimination policies and multiculturalism in a comparative perspective, the death penalty in the United States, and US-China relations.  He is the author of L'Égalité par le droit: les paradoxes de la discrimination positive aux États-Unis (Paris, Économica, 2003 ; « François Furet Book Award 2004 ») - of which Equality and Transparency is a partial and revised translation - and the co-editor (with Patrick Simon) of the symposium « Affirmative Action », International Social Science Journal, 57 (183), March 2005. Along with legal scholar Gwénaële Calvès, he is the coordinator of a research group on antidiscrimination policies at CERI. He has taught at the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University and now teaches political science in the graduate school of the Institut d'études politiques de Paris.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 268 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (August 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403963827
• ISBN-13: 978-1403963826
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,796,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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