Relational Idea of Equality
Discussion
Peter Radford, citing Pierre Rosanvallon:
"In that early part of our modern world equality was a multifaceted concept. It was relational.
Rosanvallon expresses it this way:
“This relational idea of equality was articulated in connection with three other notions: similarity, independence, and citizenship. Similarity comes under the head of equality as equivalence: to be ‘alike’ is to have the same essential properties, such that remaining differences do not affect the character of the relationship. Independence is equality of autonomy; it is defined negatively as the absence of subordination and positively as equilibrium in exchange. Citizenship involves equality as participation, which is constituted by community membership and civic activity… Economic inequalities were seen as acceptable in this framework only if they did not threaten the other modes of relational equality that defined the society of equals”.
This was a web of interlocking and mutually dependent relationships. It was not simply the equality of equivalence only."