On the Contribution of Ex Ante Equality to Ex Post Fairness

When distributing an indivisible harm or benefit between multiple individuals, all of whom have an equal claim to avoid the harm or receive the benefit, it is commonly thought that one should hold a lottery in order to give each claimant an equal chance of winning. Moreover, it is often said that, by holding a lottery, one makes the resultant outcome inequality between those who receive the harm or benefit and those who do not less unfair than it would otherwise have been. Versions of this view have been prominently endorsed by a number of authors, including Arneson, Broome, Diamond, Lang, Otsuka, Parfit, and Temkin. I argue that the view is mistaken. I note that the failure of the view has significant consequences for policy, including most importantly for how we should interpret the goal of fair equality of opportunity.