Question

Is there any way to argue that capitalism has upgraded the equalitarian expectations?Describe with examples.​

Answer 1

Answer:

There is a great distance between the radical democratic egalitarian ideal

and social reality in the world in which we live. The dream of democratic

egalitarians is to create the institutions needed to further the realization of that

ideal. The first step in turning the dream into a practical ambition is to figure out

what it is about the world in which we live that blocks this realization. This

diagnosis of the world of the actual provides the empirical context for exploring

the world of the possible.

In this chapter we will focus on the problem of how the economic

structures of capitalism block radical democratic egalitarianism. This focus is not

because all of the obstacles to the radical democratic egalitarian ideal can be

subsumed under the rubric “capitalism.” Radical democratic egalitarianism is an

encompassing moral conviction that challenges all social and cultural practices

that generate inequalities in access to the material and social conditions for human

flourishing, and all conditions that obstruct people from empowered political

participation. These include structures of power and privilege linked to gender,

race, ethnicity, nationality, and citizenship. The idea of envisioning real utopias,

therefore, must ultimately include an account of institutional arrangements for

robust egalitarianism on all of these dimensions. Nevertheless, since capitalism so

pervasively and powerfully structures the prospects of both egalitarian conditions

for human flourishing and democratic empowerment, any radical democratic

egalitarian project of social change must come to terms with the nature of

capitalism and the prospects for its transformation. This is an especially urgent

task at the beginning of the 21st century since capitalism has become such a taken-

for-granted form of economic structure. This is where we will begin.