Order and Equality Until Today

Modern democracy has superseded the medieval status system and the privileges existing under that system, and has attempted to realize an equality under the law. As a result, equality in political participation, that is, the system of universal suffrage, has been realized under the democratic system. Yet, even though this area of equality has been realized under the law, economic equality has not been realized yet, and the gap between the classes has been further widened. Unless this gap between the rich and the poor is solved, equality under the law is nothing more than an equality in name: genuine equality can not be realized substantially. In order to realize economic equality, Karl Marx advocated the establishment of a classless society, the Communist society, through the abolition of private property. In spite of the Communist experiment for over seventy years following the Russian Revolution, however, economic equality was not realized. Instead, a new privileged class appeared, bringing about a new form of gap between the rich and the poor. Thus, true equality has not yet been realized, even though people continue to try to achieve it, and have been trying ever since the beginning of human history. In the democratic world, equality generally means equality of rights and this is one of the basic principles of democracy. Yet, the concept of equality is generally considered to be incompatible with the concept of order. In other words, if equality is emphasized, order is apt to be lost, and if order is emphasized, equality is apt to be lost. This has been the general view of order and equality up until today.

The fundamental question here concerns the relationship between order and equality. If all people were completely equal in their rights, there would be no difference between those who govern and those who are governed. Such a society would still become disordered and would exist in a situation of anarchy. On the other hand, if order is over-emphasized, certain aspects of equality are bound to be lost. Thus, we must enquire as to the true nature of equality, namely, that equality for which human beings are sincerely searching in the depths of their original mind. We must also find a meaningful solution to the problem of the appropriate balance of order and equality.