Egalitarian Governments

Egalitarian Governments

An egalitarian country has a government that treats all people equal.

The examination of a country’s commitment to egalitarianism must go beyond a review of the documents of the country and go beyond the messages sent from the highest levels.  It must be examined at the street level.

This includes, yes, the police of the local community, but also the fire department, the tax assessments, the voting rights, personal protection of citizens, the relationship between the local government and all of its citizens, the courts of the local government, contact with financial institutions and more.

Every contact between two or more individuals, between individuals and government, individuals and businesses and membership to social groups and more in the locale must be examined to ensure that all at treated with equality and respect.

Examples of this is in the voting process and in the criminal justice system.

In the voting process, if one precinct has one machine for 400 people and another has a voting machine for 4,000 people, that is inequity.  If one precinct has a voting machine set within the precinct and another has combined precincts with a limited number of machines, that is inequity.

In criminal justice, if a black person receives a harsher punishment for the same crime as a white person, all things equal, that is inequity.

There does not need to be abstract mathematical models to bring light to the issue.  There does not need to be more beautifully written documents protesting inequity brought down to the local level. 

There needs to be action by the local governments that does not just sit around waiting for a problem to arise.  The local governments need to be in the community door to door informing people about the issues and that they must be solved.

While 100% equity may never be accomplished, anything less than 100% means that we are closer to the other end of the scale then we should be, closer to fascism.