Social equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within a specific society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain public goods and social services.
Social equality requires the absence of legally enforced social class or caste boundaries and the absence of discrimination motivated by an inalienable part of an individual's identity. For example, advocates of social equality believe in equality before the law for all individuals regardless of sex, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, origin, caste or class, income or property, language, religion, convictions, opinions, health, or disability.
Social equality is related to equal opportunity.
Definition
Social equality is variously defined and measured by different schools of thought. These include equality of power, rights, goods, opportunities, capabilities, or some combination of these things. It may also by defined in comparison to distributive equality, power structures between individuals, or justice and political egalitarianism. Societies that promote social equality generally do not make distinctions of rank or social class, and interpersonal relationships under a system of social equality are generally based on the ideal of mutual respect and equal value rather than hierarchy or honour. Many different ideologies draw from ideas of social equality, including communism, anarchism, multiculturalism, republicanism, democracy, socialism, and social democracy. The advocacy of social equality is egalitarianism. Social equality is distinct from alleviating suffering of the unfortunate in society. It is an expression of the ideal that any two individuals in society should be treated with an equal level of respect and have equal right to participate in society without regard for social status or hierarchy.
Social equality often pertains to how individuals relate to one another within a society, though it can also be considered in interactions between societies. Social hierarchies may form between states or their citizens when power disparities exist between them, particularly in the context of globalization. These disparities are often distinct in type as well as scope, as citizens in different states do not share a common community or social environment. As advances are made in social equality, both internationally and within a society, the scope of social equality expands as new forms of social inequality become apparent and new solutions become possible.
Historical examples
Illustrating the combat fought in favor of this application on many fronts are the following episodes:
The French Revolution of 1789 in view of the abolition of privileges
The Bandung Conference and other anticolonialist movements reclaiming a better sharing of the world than that realized between great powers at the Yalta Conference The United Nations which – by its specialized institutions – seeks to promote more stable and concrete dialogue and cooperation between its members In France, trade union movements (as in 1936) or charitable movements, such as in France that of Abbé Pierre, of International Movement ATD Fourth World The appeal to the establishment of equal opportunities appeals to the idea that people must be in the same conditions to try in life (with concrete initiatives, such as that of Muhammad Yunus in favor of microcredit)
Philosophical history
Early conceptions of social equality appear in Ancient Greek philosophy. The Stoic philosophers believed that human reason is universal. Plato considered natures of equality when building a society in the Republic, including both a monastic equality and equality in depravity. Aristotle also developed a conception of equality, particularly in regard to citizenship, though he rejected the concept of total social equality in favor of social hierarchy. Social equality developed as a practicable element of society in Europe during the Reformation in which traditional religious hierarchies were challenged. The development of post-Reformation political philosophy provided a secular foundation for social equality and political science created empirical systems to analyze social equality in practice.