Equality is the principle of ensuring fairness and equal treatment for all individuals, regardless of their differences or backgrounds. It promotes a level playing field where everyone has the same opportunities and rights.

Introduction

• The idea of equality stands as a defining feature of modern political thought, challenging the classical and medieval belief in natural hierarchies. Equality is not just a concept; it is a prescriptive term that emphasizes that all individuals must be treated as equals. This concept is built upon the assumption that humans are rational beings, endowed with the faculty of reason, and all are created equal by a higher power.
• According to Harold Laski, concept of equality entails abolishing special privileges, offering opportunities for individual growth, granting unrestricted access to social benefits, and diminishing economic and social disparities. This vision underscores a commitment to a fair and just society where all individuals enjoy equal rights and opportunities.
• Meanwhile, John Locke provided a different perspective. According to him men have equal rights to their natural freedom. But men having equal worth does not mean that they have equal talent and equal capacity and therefore equal treatment would not fit in the meaning of equality.

Definitions of Equality

Various political theorists have offered their definitions of equality, shedding light on the different aspects of this complex concept. Here are a few notable definitions:

• Mikhail Bakunin: “Political freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie, and the workers want no lying.”
• D.D Raphael: “The right to equality is a right of equal satisfaction of basic needs including capacities.
• Barker: “Barker’s perspective holds that equality signifies identical rights for all individuals and the abolition of all special rights or privileges.”
• Laski: “As per Laski, equality ensures that no individual within a society should be in a position to surpass their neighbor to an extent that it amounts to a rejection of the latter’s citizenship.”
• Theodore Bikel: “I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.”
• Feagler: “Equality of opportunity is freedom, but equality of outcome is repression.”
• Fromm: “Men are born equal, but they are born different as well.”

Evolution of the Concept of Equality

• The history of political philosophy is filled with references to the ideal of equality, from ancient Greece to the 20th century, notable for its many egalitarian experiments.
• The idea of equality has evoked strong human passions and has undergone significant transformations across centuries, shaping and being shaped by the political battles fought by millions of people.
• These battles were often fought against autocrats, unjust social conditions, and undemocratic regimes or policies.
• Tracing the history of an idea is difficult, as it involves the interpretive exercise of understanding past contributions.
• One issue in interpretation is whether we can use contemporary lenses to judge the works of past authors, with some claiming this is possible and others suggesting that interpretation should be contextual rather than textual.
• There is a pluralist approach to this debate, with many scholars accepting the validity of both perspectives.
• Another issue is whether the recovery of an idea will result in a progressive revelation of contemporary ideals or an account of degeneration leading to dangerous contemporary trends.
• The project of recovering an idea is therefore filled with either hope or despair.
• Most efforts to recover the history of normative concepts in political theory aim at a progressive revival, noting how ideas grow and evolve over time.
• These recoveries are enriched by drawing on the connections between ideas such as liberty, justice, rights, popular sovereignty, and democracy, which help shape the concept of equality.
• The idea of equality is intertwined with these parallel concepts and cannot be fully understood in isolation.
• The book will selectively focus on thinkers like Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, Marx, and Tocqueville, who played decisive roles in shaping the idea of equality.
• Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, wrote that the spread of equality in history is inevitableand irresistible.
• Tocqueville claims that the progress of equality is universal and permanent, and that the ideal is beyond human control, with every individual contributing to its progress.
• He asks how something that is now universal and permanent began its journey.

• The Greek experiments in popular rule are well-known, where citizens exercised an equal voice in the governance of their city-states.
• Aristotle’s Athenian Constitution references many egalitarian reforms in Athens that aimed to reduce inequalities in various spheres of social life.
• These reforms focused on ending aristocratic control over land, power, and honor, which was crucial in preparing Athens for the democratic ideal.
• Practices of equality established by law were essential for democratic rule in Athens.
• A key term in ancient Athens that competed with demokratia was isonomia, meaning equality before and within the law, ensuring political equality for the poor, who made up the majority of citizens.
• However, metics (foreigners), slaves, and women were excluded from citizenship and the democratic process in ancient Athens.
• Aristotle’s Politics documents and justifies this exclusion of certain groups from citizenship.
• Aristotle’s view of equality was limited to the class of citizens only.
• Political equality for citizens, according to Aristotle, was based on the idea of ‘ruling and being ruled in turn’.
• In Book III, Chapter 9 of Politics, Aristotle correlates justice with equality, stating that “justice is held to be equality, and it is, but for equals and not for all.”
• He argues that inequality is just but only for unequals and not for everyone.
• This is the first classic statement of formal equality, which treats like cases alike and unlike cases unlike.
• Unlike other views of formal equality, Aristotle’s conception includes substance, defending natural inequalityamong men to rule.
• Aristotle believes that nature divides people into the ruling and the ruled, with those in the ruling category possessing rational, deliberative, and authoritative capacities.
• According to Aristotle, this inequality between the ruling and the ruled (the unequals) is just.

• Aristotle defends natural inequality, proposing political equality only among certain humans, typically male citizens.
• Hobbes, in contrast, defends natural equality among all humans in the state of nature, which he elaborates in Leviathan.
• Hobbes claims that nature has made men equal in body and mind, such that despite some individuals being stronger or quicker than others, the overall difference is not significant enough for one person to claim a superior benefit over another.
• He argues that even the weakest individual has enough strength to kill the strongest, either through secret plot or by conspiring with others.
• Regarding the faculties of the mind, Hobbes states that prudence, derived from experience, is equally distributed among all men.
• Hobbes proposes that all individuals in the state of nature have an equal ability to achieve their goals, leading to an equality of hope to succeed in their pursuits.
• Humans are driven by an equal ability to work and an irresistible passion for power.
• From this condition of equality, the first threat to equality arises when individuals attempt to dominate and subjugateothers in their quest for more power.
• As men compete for more power, they forgo security and live in a state of depravity.
• To secure their safety, men must agree to cede a part of their power to a political authority and lead a civilized, but still equal, existence under its domination.
• Hobbes emphasizes the achievement of natural equality among men, freed from all non-political sources of authority, including religion.