Equality

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the concept of equality is central to Western society and reflects the secularization of the Christian notion of equality before God. It looks at how early social theorists such as Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke, acknowledged the inequality of natural gifts and how they believed in the equality of individuals within the institutions of civil and political society. It discusses how the three distinct meanings of equality that inform most debates over social justice and provide many of the dividing lines of Western political life are equality before the law, equality of opportunity and equality of results or condition.

From the Paper:

"Economic stratification by a combination of class, race, gender, region, religion, and ethnicity is still a central feature of the majority of societies and a strong determinant of life outcomes (Calhoun 2002). Although all societies accept some inequality, "they differ in the type and degree that are considered appropriate," and differ in the "degree to which they accept inheritance as the basis for inequality," thus inherited inequality has been discouraged in modern societies "in favor of an emphasis on merit-based rewards" (Calhoun 2002).
Much research has been conducted concerning the mechanisms that produce patterns of wealth and poverty over time, "especially those that inhibit social mobility in spite of social policies designed to create access to wealth," especially public education (Calhoun 2002). "

Sample of Sources Used:

• 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920) - Transcript. Retrieved March 20 2006 from: http://www.classbrain.com/artfree/publish/article_174.shtml
• Calhoun, Craig. (2002). Equality. Dictionary of the Social Sciences. Retrieved March 20 2006 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
• Equality. Retrieved March 20 2006 from Dictionary.com Web site: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=equality
• U.S. Constitution: Fourteenth Amendment. Retrieved March 20 2006 from: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment14/
• The U.S.1 Constitution Online: Retrieved March 20 2006 from: http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am13

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