Equality Flashcards
Equality is necessary in a ______ democracy.
Equality is necessary in a liberal. democracy
What do both strands of liberals believe in?
Equality of opportunity - all should be able to have equal chances in life at everything they do or attempt.
What did Mary Wollstonecraft say regarding formal equality?
Despite being a CL, and so typically against an intervening state, argued that the equality of opportunity could be further extended to women via education.
What did Betty Friedan argue?
She said that women should be able to choose between the ‘expected’ life of a women, which included staying at home, bringing up the children etc or to have a career of her own. As a modern liberal, she believed that this would only be attainable with a much higher level of state intervention, with the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws by the federal government.
Why do classical liberals believe that equality is just guaranteed?
They think that equality is just naturally existent because of the foundational rights that we obtain when born. They therefore believe that we all have the equality of opportunity available to us.
What do modern liberals think is necessary regarding equality of opportunity?
They believe that some people are limited in life and due to external arbitrary factors some of us are held back and so we do not actually stand on a level playing field.
Thus, ML think that the state must intervene to ensure we all have equal chance of opportunity.
What did John Rawls propose?
John Rawls believed that a set of rules should be set out in order to allow equality in society. He said that this would have to be agreed upon behind a ‘veil of ignorance’, whereby we are oblivious to our own social position in society. This is because humans are rational and egotistical in the sense that they will naturally choose what is best for their own position, so if we are behind this veil of ignorance then it is likely that we will assume the worst, and so that way even those at the bottom of society will still be treat equally and fairly.
