Equality of Opportunity in a European Social Market Economy

This article investigates what role the ideal of equality of opportunity should play in a European social market economy (ESME). After defining ‘social market economy’ and sketching different conceptions of equality of opportunity, it is argued that a social market economy must implement a substantive version of equality of opportunity. Subsequent sections assess how such a robust version needs adaptation in light of the EU's special nature: first, it assesses the merits of a direct transnational application of interpersonal substantive equality. Second, it considers what the ideal requires in a ESME understood along internationalist lines: even on this account, labour mobility creates tensions between EU citizens' claims to equal prospective chances in a fair cross‐border competition against each state's prerogative of providing the highest level of education to its residents. The concluding section offers some suggestions how we might alleviate this tension between domestic equality of opportunity and national autonomy.