Egalitarianism

Egalitarianism Defined

Egalitarian doctrine essentially advocates equality of some sort, although there is considerable diversity in egalitarian theory and practice. Equity in business dealings and equality of corporate opportunity would certainly be hallmarks of business or corporate egalitarianism. No one should receive unfair preferential treatment, according to egalitarian philosophy.

Specialized, field-specific definitions may also be consulted. According to one respected perspective, egalitarianism is the moral principle espousing the belief that all human beings are and should be treated the same. All persons should be treated equally in some respects. Similarly, egalitarians believe that everyone is fundamentally and essentially of equal worth and moral status. In the Western European and Anglo-American traditions, the most significant influence on this thought is the Christian concept that God loves everyone equally. Egalitarianism must be considered to be a protean doctrine, because there are numerous types or categories of equality.

Egalitarian History

Egalitarianism has been an evolving concept subject to diverse interpretations. It is appropriate that the term egalitarianism is French in derivation, as the French revolution was probably the first modern manifestation of the philosophy. The Englishman John Locke may have supplied one of egalitarianism's initial modern foundations with his idea of moral rights. In the mid- to late 1600s, Locke contended that all people should have equality of moral rights, which he termed “natural rights.”

Marxism, and its corollaries socialism and communism, represented the next major step in the history of egalitarian thought. Karl Marx's socioeconomic studies in the late 1800s realized that complete revolutionary structural change would be necessary in the industrialized nations to achieve the Marxist goals of common ownership and collective economic enterprise. Both socialist and communist political philosophy has been used to guide governments in the 20th and 21st centuries in Cuba, Eastern Europe, China, and the former Soviet Union, with very limited success.

A third noteworthy development in egalitarian thought involved the work of John Rawls. According to Rawls, there are “primary social goods” of basic importance, which should be equally available to everyone. The two most important aspects of egalitarian philosophy, according to Rawls, were as follows: (1) All persons have equal citizenship and personal liberty rights, and (2) the only justified exceptions to an equal division of income and rewards would be those helping the most disadvantaged, and only if offices and positions of leadership were equally accessible to every possible aspirant. Rawls's work on egalitarianism is still considered important and influential egalitarian thought.

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