Political Ideologies in Conflict Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Political Ideologies in Conflict - Essay Example Socialism’s key theme is based on the community’s power, instead of individual effort (Alesina & Rodrik 465). On the other hand, equality denotes the creation of a society that is fairer and everyone is a participant and is accorded an opportunity to realize their potential. Equality aims at getting rid of discrimination and prejudice so as to offer fair, diverse and personal services to the society (Alesina & Rodrik 471). It aims at eliminating discrimination based on gender, age, religion, race and ethnicity. Ideology entails a set of ideas reflecting a nation’s, people’s or society’s beliefs. This paper will discuss the role of equality in socialist ideology. Socialism and equality are inseparable. Early socialism (also known as Utopian socialism) criticized the capitalist society, condemning it and pushing for its destruction (Nozick 16). It struggled to make the rich realize the immorality caused by exploitation. The desire for a new system and order contained the emergent factors of socialist ideas and represented the reaction of the working masses’ wishes of emancipation and, concurrently, their political and ideological powerlessness. Over many years, socialist ideologists tried to authenticate the ideal of a fair society with no exploitation and class oppression (Giacomo & Gruner 90). They advocated for equality. In socialism, equality is addressed in four forms; economic, foundational, formal and equality of opportunity (Blanchflower & Freeman 439). Foundational equality addresses the fact that God created all people as equal human beings. This is further explained to clarify that not all have the same abilities and talents , rather, because of the common humanity, their moral worth is equal (Alesina & Rodrik 479). Formal equality addresses the aspect of citizens and the law. It provides that State institutions are obliged to accord its citizens equal treatment, and that the institutions should themselves remain subject to the law as a way of defence against possible dictatorship of the State. Equality of opportunity fights discrimination in education, employment, housing or social services because of race, colour or sex (Giacomo & Gruner 84). Finally, economic equality intends to eliminate disproportions in the distribution of wealth, income disparities, and the gap between the poor and the rich (Blanchflower & Freeman 440). Socialists view social inequality as a disproportion of economic advantages within a society (Giacomo & Gruner 86). They believe humans must be accorded equal opportunity to prosper in the society. However, humans are not treated equally in all senses. To this end, socialists decl are inequality an evil that should be eliminated. In particular, wealth inequality is so evil among socialists that it justifies the forceful repossession from those who have it in abundance for fairer redistribution to the poor (Blanchflower & Freeman 446). Socialism is outstanding for its sustenance for social equality. Parliamentary socialists approved equality of opportunity as a substitute to equality of outcome because it signifies an unassuming level of outcome through the redeployment of wealth (Alesina & Rodrik 481). They base their support for equality on several factors. They argue that it is a more significant variety of equality than equal opportunities or formal