Egalitarianism Research Paper
Kiara J. Spellman
Professor Miller
GOVT 329 B-01 LUO
29 June 2020
Abstract
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This research paper will examine what egalitarianism is and how it affects our country as
a whole. Egalitarianism and its significant role in American exceptionalism have been addressed
from the point of view of those who were not protected by the doctrine when it was established.
Women and people of color were unable to attain the equality that the rest of the world was
envious of. Throughout all history, the pursuit of equality, independence, and a life without
limitations has brought hundreds of thousands to America. America has this special characteristic
relative to the rest of humanity, but it hasn't always been flawless in its search for it. The
opportunity to alter the direction of one's family history by hard work and learning from the past
to impact the present and the future. The characteristic of egalitarianism in America has
encouraged its people to feel that they can do anything they want to do.
American exceptionalism and the characteristics that make up this concept or doctrine are
indeed a valid subject in America today, even though it was born in the 1700s when our nation
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was founded. In his book American Exceptionalism: An Experiment in History, Charles Murray
articulates and defines American Exceptionalism. The term was developed, named and
introduced to the United States of America by citizens of other countries upon seeing the new
American way of life that the American people have openly displayed to the world. The ideology
of American exceptionalism is made up of four distinct elements, according to Charles Murray.
These four distinct elements are industriousness, egalitarianism, religiosity, and community life
(Murray, 2013).
Defining Egalitarianism
Egalitarianism is the philosophy that all humans are equal and deserve equal treatment
and equal opportunities. This term is often used when it comes to social, political and economic
relations. It was and still is distinctly common to the United States of America. The idea of moral
dignity and equal rights, granted by God, was new to the world when American culture was
introduced. At the founding of the republic, the original immigrants to the Americas had come to
live a new life. Most wanted to escape the dictatorship of governments that made laws for the
rich, asserted authority as monarchs, and even used guerrilla tactics to take advantage of the
lower class. The American ethos at the time was that of liberation from oppression for everyone.
Since the reformed government was based on this characteristic, it was and still is unique to the
American government.
Types of Egalitarianism
When discussing egalitarianism, it is important to highlight the different types which are
social, political, and economic. Egalitarianism has so many moving parts that in order to fully
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understand it, it has to be dissected piece by piece. Social egalitarianism can be defined as the
view according to which a just society is one where people relate to each other as equals while
the basic premise of luck egalitarianism is that it is unfair if people are worse-off than others
through no fault or choice of their own (Axelson and Bidadanure 2018). This type of
egalitarianism is often used to discuss gender and racial inequality in this country. A lot of people
will argue that America and what it is founded on is rigged against women, people of color, and
even people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community. Next we have political egalitarianism,
which is defined as members of a community or society having equal political power or political
influence. This was an idea that one of our founding fathers supported and that was Thomas
Jefferson. Joseph Heath states that political egalitarianism does not “refer to equality within the
political sphere, but rather in John Rawls’s sense, to refer to a conception of egalitarian
distributive justice that is capable of serving as the object of an overlapping consensus in a
pluralistic society” (Heath 2008). The concept of political egalitarianism is a similar concept to
moral reciprocity and legal equality. This idea of political egalitarianism suggests that all
citizens of certain countries be treated equally depending on the status of their citizenship, not on
their race, religion and their wealth and intelligence. Using the “all men are created equal,” we
delve into the true sense of what it means to be equal in American culture. Political ideologies,
such as Marxism, Liberalism, Anarchism and Communism, tend to embrace egalitarianism to a
degree. There have been contrasting opinions that suggest that democratic society is a deliberate
understanding of political egalitarianism, but there are those who argue that most political forces
favor the dominant class and thus do not necessarily benefit the common people. The Declaration
of Independence of 1776 is an example of this. It included moral and legal egalitarianism in the
dissertation that reads, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with their creator of
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certain inalienable rights, including Life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness “(Declaration of
Independence, Constitution of the United States). However, it wasn't until 1900 that American
societies made adjustments to slavery, women and other races and ethnicities. There are still a lot
of uneven ground and racial, gender and ethnic background barriers that still need to be fought
for. The last type of egalitarianism is economic egalitarianism. Richard Arneson states that “In
modern democratic societies, the term “egalitarian” is often used to refer to a position that
favors, for any of a wide array of reasons, a greater degree of equality of income and wealth
across persons than currently exists” (Arneson 2013). This is the idea that everyone in a society
has the right to accumulate wealth. It is the given right of members in a community to make
money. They may do this through investments, income, and entrepreneurial efforts.
The Egalitarian Trait
This Egalitarian trait was uniquely associated with American culture due to the
breakdown of obstacles and self-righteousness. After constant calls for social unrest have gone
unheard and ignored, many social groups are forcing the issue of equality. “One obvious
consequence of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequality is that low-income youth and young
people of color are more likely to grow up in households and communities with far fewer
socioeconomic resources than their white and affluent peers” (Prudence and Reardon 2014).
When discussing equality and race, it must be acknowledged that there are those who are
privileged and those who are not. This privilege is due to race, gender, sexuality, etc. Looking at
what’s going on in America today, history is merely repeating itself. The same fight that has been
fought for centuries is still occurring. “The events, laws, court decisions, peaceful protests, and
riots of the 1960s symbolize shifts in the attitudes and values of many Americans with regard to
three vital elements of our social structure. The first was with regard to African Americans. Not
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since the Reconstruction era, just after the Civil War, had the United States addressed the issue of
whether blacks would participate fully in our society, en-joying the same liberties our
Constitution granted to European-origin whites” (Farley 1998). The fact that human rights had to
be fought and rioted merely for the color of a person’s skin is incredibly alarming to say the
least. Women have not had it easy either. They have to work twice as hard to be acknowledged in
a world that has been dominated by men. “Second, just after the civil rights movement raised
questions about why we excluded blacks from opportunities because of their skin color, there
were effective challenges to the assumption that the best jobs and most rewarding professional
careers should go to men, while women should devote themselves to homes, families, and
children” (Farley 1998). Seen as just homemakers, women did not have the luxury of having a
career or a passion outside their families because it wasn’t their place to do so. The world has
also not been too kind to the LGBTQ+ community. “By the 1960s, in New York and San
Francisco, many bars, restaurants, bath houses, and stores attracted a gay clientele. Indeed, such
places became meccas for homosexual men from across the nation. Although they seldom
arrested men for violating sex laws, police in some cities harassed gay men, especially those who
frequented the bars and sex clubs that catered to them. In New York, the police, from time to
time, insulted, pummeled, or beat the habitues” (Farley 1998). This is no different from what
occurs now. The LGBTQ+ is still shunned on the daily even though Obama legalized their right
to get married in 2013.
Legislators have ignored many issues that reflect poorly on the nation of “all men are
created equal.” All men could not be equal if African-American, Asian-American, Latin-
American, LGBTQ+, women and other groups have to fight for rights in America. This aspect is
harmful to American exceptionalism. As our notion of freedom spreads across foreign lands,
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America is seen as a land where many groups of people are free to live, free to express
themselves, and free to practice their religion peacefully.
American Exceptionalism
This could be a benefit to American exceptionalism because it means equality and the
nation will finally be equal, but currently America is not equal in my opinion. Right now African
Americans and minorities are under attack by the country. There is no equality, there are no
rights. There is only privilege and white supremacy. When you think about it America was built
on the backbone of minorities and women. There is no freedom of speech or freedom of religion.
Given the current state of America I don’t know if there will ever be equality. There will never be
political egalitarianism, there will never be social egalitarianism and there will never be
economic egalitarianism, because the supremacists will always hold power over the minorities.
America has found itself at the brink of war yet again and it’s with the black community and the
minorities. We simply want equality.
Rebuttal
While Egalitarianism could be beneficial to American Exceptionalism and to this country,
many are opposed to it for various reasons. Egalitarianism is viewed as a new age thing, when in
reality, it has existed for ages. Jack Kerwick discusses his views on egalitarianism in his article
entitled “The Intellectual and Moral Poverty of Egalitarianism”. In it, he uses ideas from many
people, including William Graham Sumner who is a nineteenth century sociologist. Kerwick
states that Sumner “bluntly described “the dogma that all men are equal” as “the most flagrant
falsehood and the most immoral doctrine which men have ever believed”(Kerwick 2012).
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Kerwick goes on to explain that If all men are equal, then “the man who has not done his duty is
as good as the one who has done his duty”; furthermore, if this doctrine is true, then “the
moralists” who “instruct youth that men who pursue one line of action will go down to loss and
shame, and those who pursue another course will go up to honor as success” must be wrong”
(Kerwick 2012). Meaning that those who chose to do nothing can be viewed as equal to someone
who does all the necessary work. Kerwick also argues that egalitarianism promotes malevolent
benevolence. “”The friends of humanity start out with certain benevolent feelings towards 'the
poor,' 'the weak,' 'the laborers,' and others of whom they make pets. They generalize these classes
and render them impersonal, and so constitute the classes into social pets.” Then, “they turn to
other classes and appeal to sympathy and generosity and to all the other noble sentiments of the
human heart” while proposing “a transfer of capital from the better off to the worse off.” (Sound
familiar?)” (Kerwick 2012). In other words, it’s an evil or harmful influence over doing
something good and generous just to do so. Llewellyn Rockwell has a similar view. He believes
that we view equality as being something morally ideal and something we should uphold because
it’s something we can never obtain. He makes the point that liberals are okay with human
difference. That yes, they understand it exists, but they will not do anything to condone or not
support it because at the end of the day “It affords him another opportunity to marvel at a miracle
of the market: its ability to incorporate just about anyone into the division of labor” (Rockwell
2015).
In closing, Egalitarianism plays an important role in American Exceptionalism. It would
be detrimental to not identify and practice it in the USA. Like many thoughts, ideas, and policies,
egalitarianism has it’s pros and cons. It has its flaws. However, this country and our government
could really benefit from it and what this simple word stands for: equality. After all, The United
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States of America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. It should stand on equality
for all of its inhabitants.
Bibliography
Arneson, Richard. 2013. “Egalitarianism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford
University. April 24. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/egalitarianism/.
Axelsen, David V, and Juliana Bidadanure. 2018. “Unequally Egalitarian? Defending the
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Carter, L. Prudence and Reardon, F. Sean. Inequality Matters, A William T. Grant Foundation
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Farley, Reynolds. The New American Reality: Who We Are, How We Got Here, Where We Are
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Accessed June 17, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/23562093.
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ianism_1.html.
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Rockwell, Llewellyn H. 2015. “The Menace of Egalitarianism: Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.”
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