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Equality versus Inequality1
Human beings are fundamentally equal from a moral point of view. They are not, and never have been, fully equal from a descriptive, factual, or empirical point of view. For some of us equality in its moral meaning is a goal, an aim, an ideal, a hope, an aspiration, an obligation. The goal is never fully attained nor is it likely to be. Egalitarian goals and aspirations confront stubborn human limitations.
Yet in a few times and places in recorded history, conditions have ennabled certain groups of human beings to move closer to some egalitarian goals. History also records that these rare, though limited, triumphs were succeeded by epochs of dreadful and pervasive inequalities. The conditions that made the Athenian democracy and the Roman Republic possible were superseded by conditions that instead fostered hierarchy and despotism.
In the opening pages of Democracy in America (1961), Tocqueville described the gradual and inexorable advance of equality of conditions "throughout the whole of Christendom" as "a providential fact ... [that] ... possesses all the characteristics of a Divine decree: it is universal, it is durable, it constantly eludes all human interference, and all events as well as all men contribute to its progress." Were he to look back today over the intervening period he would conclude that his youthful vision was not far off the mark. Whether or not the trajectory Tocqueville envisioned will continue through the next century, I cannot say. My aim instead is to describe in very general terms some of the dynamics of equality and inequality, and to assess briefly the play of forces pushing in the two opposing directions in our democracy and capitalism.
Some Assumptions
As Douglas Rae (1981) and his associates have shown, equalities and inequalities come in almost uncountable varieties. Though I shall not employ the rigorous grammar Rae proposes, I am going to restrict the subject considerably by focusing exclusively on political equality. Let me explain why. The moral perspective on equality has several components. One is a belief that all human beings are of equal intrinsic worth; that no person is intrinsically superior to another; and that in making collective decisions, the good or interests of each person should be given equal consideration. Insuring...