John Baker's Conceptions And Dimensions Of Social Equality

John Baker, in his paper “Conceptions and Dimensions of Social Equality,” recognizes three major aspects of social equality: 1) respect and recognition, 2) love, care and solidarity, and 3) power. For each component he presents the “liberal egalitarian” view, and then contrasts it with the “radically egalitarian” view he himself subscribes to (66). According to Baker, love, care and solidarity have been neglected by theories of equality despite their relevance to people's welfare. While love is implicated only in a person's closest relationships, care is more extensive and covers friendly relations with lesser degrees of closeness. Solidarity, on the other hand, involves those outside of one's direct social sphere “whom one still cares about and is willing to act on behalf of” (73). Developing a principle about these “affective relationships” is challenging, as it is easier to demand avoidance of negative relationships, namely “hate, neglect, or abuse,” than to require that people love and care for all others (74). …show more content…
Even liberal theories, however, seem to appeal to affective relationships to an extent, and “call on us to show at least minimal care for others” (76). He argues that the liberal concern about the status of strangers is unfounded, and that caring equally about everyone is consistent with affording greater care to people one knows immediately. Radical egalitarianism does not advocate “equal relations of care,” but rather a social order where we do not discriminate strongly between “groups of strangers, in particular those with whom we are culturally or politically affiliated and those with whom we are not” (77). In Baker's view, solidarity and other affective relationships are fundamental for equality and societal change