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Political egalitarianism describes an inclusive and fair allocation of political power or influence, fair processes, and fair treatment of all regardless of characteristics like race, gender, religion, age, wealth, intelligence and sexuality.[1][2] Political egalitarianism, and its close cousin political equality, are key founding principles and sources oflegitimacy for manydemocracies.[1] Related principles includeone person, one vote andequality before the law.[3]
Egalitarianism denotes the belief that all people are of equal fundamental worth and should have equal status.[2] Egalitarians tend to focus more on process and treating people as social equals than on the raw distribution of power.[4]
Political equality is only achieved when the norms, rules and procedures that govern the community afford equal consideration to all.[4] The concept is cited in many definitions of democracy and touted as one of its advantages overoligarchy andautocracy.[5] Alexander Guerrero argues that systems usingsortition score better on political equality thanelectoral representative democracies.[5]Robert Dahl believes that the ideal of democracy assumes that political equality is desirable.[6] He goes on to argue that political equality and democracy are supported by the inherent intrinsic equal worth of every person (intrinsic equality) and the tendency of concentrated power to corrupt.[7]
Equality before law means that the law applies to all peoples equally and without exceptions. For example, thefreedom of speech should apply the same to all members of a society. Laws can sometimes be designed to help minimize unequal application.[8] Well-designed constitutions, for example, can help protect political rights in functioning democracies.[9][10]