Egalitarianism

Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal or level) is the moral doctrine that people should be treated as equals, in some respect. Generally it applies to being held equal under the law, the church, and society at large.

Introduction

Ultimately, it holds that all human persons are equal in fundamental worth or moral status. A significant source of this trend of thought is the Christian notion that humankind were created in the living image of God (Imago Dei) and that God loves all human beings equally, regardless of their individual differences in gender, race, status, position, etc. Illustrative of efforts to institutionalize this notion are these excerpts from an organizational Statement of Faith:

• We believe in the equality and essential dignity of men and women of all ethnicities, ages, and classes. We recognize that all persons are made in the image of God and are to reflect that image in the community of believers, in the home, and in society.
• We believe that men and women are to diligently develop and use their God-given gifts for the good of the home, church and society.

General Egalitarianism

Perhaps in its "purest" theoretical form, Egalitarianism affirms, promotes, and believes in equal political, economic opportunity, social, and civil rights for all people. In actual practice, one may be considered an egalitarian in most areas listed above, even if not subscribing to equality in every possible area of individual difference. For example, one might support equal rights in race matters but not in gender issues, or vice versa.

Nonegalitarian view

By contrast, a typical nonegalitarian would believe that people born into a more favorable gender, social caste, race or ethnicity, or with special breeding or education or physical attractiveness, or any other specific criteria, should somehow be considered of greater worth or value, and hence be treated preferentially.

Egalitarian Individualism

Egalitarian Individualism is an idea espoused most by the stoics. It is the philosophy that each human being is equally worthy of human rights despite one's nation, ethnic group, or gender. This view also forms the basis of much of the eighteenth century philosopher Immanuel Kant's work. Kant states that human beings are equally due the right to be treated morally and ethically. Global regimes, and humanitarian aid organizations all function off of the idea that individuals, no matter what country or nation they are a part of, deserve to have human rights, and the protection of those human rights. All of these global regimes are heavily affected by the philosophy of Egalitarian Individualism.

The Christian egalitarian view

See also: Christian egalitarianism

Affirmative View

The Christian egalitarian view holds that the Bible, properly interpreted, teaches the fundamental equality of men and women of all racial and ethnic groups, all economic classes, and all age groups, based on the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and the overarching principles of scripture as articulated in Galatians 3:28. While Bible passages are subject to various interpretations, Christian egalitarians believe that:

• there should be no gender distinction in roles of men and women in the function or leadership of the church, to include ordination of women, or in society in general
• in marriage the wife and husband not only are created equal as female and male, but there is no biblically-prescribed hierarchy giving the husband any authority over the wife.

Nonegalitarian Christian View

Today in Christianity the non-egalitarian view is usually called Complementarian. It maintains that the office of pastor, and in some churches also the offices of elder and deacon, are denied to women. Marriage is also to be male dominant. The husband is uniquely responsible for "his" family, and the wife must "graciously submit" to his leadership. Besides the interpretation of Galatians 3:28 made by Christian egalitarians, there are other possible interpretations and applications. One such example is the interpretation that Christ views everyone on an equal moral ground, therefore having no implications for church duties or authority, or whether or not a wife should be submissive to her husband.

Other applications of Egalitarianism

Egalitarianism is a philosophy of considerable variety or diversity in the many ways it has been applied in society. Other common forms of egalitarianism include economic egalitarianism (also known as material egalitarianism), moral egalitarianism, legal egalitarianism, luck egalitarianism, political egalitarianism, gender egalitarianism, racial equality, and opportunity egalitarianism.

Moral and legal egalitarianism

The United States Declaration of Independence includes a kind of moral and legal egalitarianism. Because "all men are created equal," each person is to be treated equally under the law. However, not until much later did U.S. society extend these benefits to slaves, women and other groups. Over time, universal egalitarianism has won wide adherence and is a core component of modern civil rights policies.

Broadly egalitarian philosophies

At a cultural level, egalitarian theories have developed in sophistication and acceptance during the past two hundred years. Among the notable broadly egalitarian philosophies are socialism, Communism, Anarchism, democracy, and human rights, which promote economic, political, and legal egalitarianism, respectively. Several egalitarian ideas enjoy wide support among intellectuals and in the general populations of many countries. Whether any of these ideas have been significantly implemented in practice, however, remains a controversial question. For instance, some argue that modern representative democracy is a realization of political egalitarianism, while others believe that, in reality, most political power still resides in the hands of a ruling class, rather than in the hands of the people.

Communism, Marxism

Different kinds of egalitarianism can sometimes conflict, while in other situations they may be indispensable to each other. For instance, communism is an egalitarian doctrine, according to which everyone is supposed to enjoy material equality. However, because material inequality is pervasive in the current international economy, something must be done to remove it. Since those who enjoy the greatest material wealth are not likely to wish to part with it, some form of coercive mechanism must exist in the transition period before communism. But if the coercive powers of redistribution are vested in some people and not in others, a conflict of interest will take place, and inequalities of political power would emerge. History has shown, in the former Soviet Union for instance, that people who are granted coercive redistributive powers often abuse them. Indeed, those with political power were known to redistribute vastly unequal shares of material resources to themselves, thereby completely confounding the justification for their unequal political status. Therefore, most Marxists now agree that communism can only be achieved if the coercive powers of redistribution needed during the transitional period are vested in a democratic body whose powers are limited by various checks and balances, in order to prevent abuse. In other words, they argue that political egalitarianism is indispensable to material egalitarianism. Meanwhile, other defenders of material egalitarianism have rejected Marxist communism in favor of such views as libertarian socialism or anarchism, which do not necessarily advocate the transitional use of the state as a means of redistribution.

Egalitarianism in hunter-gatherer groups

There have been instances of egalitarianism found in modern hunter-gatherer groups, in several parts of the world. Even when it is within an individuals favour, or has no obvious benefit, many returning hunters will share meat with the rest of the group. The more pronounced egalitarianism can be found in leadership. Many of these groups do not have a defined leader, only for contact with modern societies (they may have mastered another language for example). This is reflected in group discussions, where individuals with mastery in one subject such as hunting will be respected, but never obeyed (if the whole group decide to go another way). If one individual does attempt to take control, then they may be ridiculed, punished or ignored, .

Egalitarianism, Growth and Progress

The question whether equality is beneficial for economic growth and progress has occupied the minds of has occupied the minds of the greatest scientific thinkers as well as policy makers. Evidence from a broad panel of recent academic studies shows the relation between income inequality and the rate of growth and investment is indeed robust however not linear.

Robert J. Barro, Harvard University found in his study Inequality and Growth in a Panel of Countries that higher inequality tends to retard growth in poor countries and encourage growth in well develloped regions. In their study for the World Institute for Development Economics Research , Giovanni Andrea Cornia and Julius Court (2001) reach analoguous conclusions. The authors therefor recommend to pursue moderation also as to the distribution of wealth and particularly to avoid the extremes. Both very high egalitarianism and very high inequality cause slow growth.

Extreme egalitarianism leads to incentive traps, free-riding, high operation costs and corruption in the redistribution system, all reducing a country's growth potential. However also extreme inequality diminishes growth potential through the erosion of social cohesion, increasing social unrest and social conflict causing uncertainty of property rights.

See the inverted U-shape curve here.

Therefore public policy should target an ‘efficient inequality range’. The authors claim that such efficiency range roughly lies between the values of the Gini coefficients of 25 (the inequality value of a typical Northern European country) and 40 (that of countries such as China and the USA).

The precise shape of the inequality-growth relationship depicted in the Chart obviously varies across countries depending upon their resource endowment, history, remaining levels of absolute poverty and available stock of social programs, as well as on the distribution of physical and human capital.

See also :

• Inequality and Growth: What Can the Data Say? Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

• The Path To Sustainable Growth - Lessons From 20 Years Growth Differentials In Europe. Martin De Vlieghere and Paul Vreymans

See also

• "All men are created equal"
• Deep ecology
• Equality of outcome
• Equal opportunity
• Jock Tamson's Bairns
• Liberalism
• Liberté, égalité, fraternité
• Social equality
• Socialism

References

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Egalitarianism