By Samuel Gregg, D.Phil.
Acton Commentary
While usually regarded as the intellectual founder of modern conservatism, the economic thought of Edmund Burke closely parallels the views of his contemporary Adam Smith, commonly viewed as a father of classical liberalism. Though Burke was firmly of the view that “charity to the poor is a direct and obligatory duty upon all Christians,” he was equally vehement that government intervention in the market place amounts to defying “the laws of commerce, which are the laws of nature, and consequently the laws of God … ”
That certain forms of inequality exist in commercial society is a given. Though it is indisputable that the standard of living for everyone, including the poorest, continues to rise in commercial society, some people will always possess more wealth than others. Gaps in wealth between different income segments of the population often increase in commercial society, even though very few people become poorer.
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In the view of the great French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, the intensity of these discussions in commercial society is heightened by democracy’s emergence. The equalizing tendencies of democracy were not something that Tocqueville regarded with unequivocal appreciation, especially in terms of its impact upon liberty:
“Democratic peoples always like equality, but there are times when their passion for it turns to delirium. . . . It is no use pointing out that freedom is slipping from their grasp while they look the other way; they are blind, or rather they can see but one thing to covet in the whole world.”
Though Tocqueville held that democracy’s emergence was underpinned by the effects of the Judeo-Christian belief in the equality of all people in God’s sight, he perceived a type of communal angst in democratic majorities that drove them to attempt to equalize all things, even if this meant behaving despotically.
None of this is to intimate that the concept of equality has no place in commercial society. Not only are various forms of equality—such as the equality in dignity (understood as the equal and inherent worth of each human being)—compatible with commercial society, but some of commercial society’s foundations depend on particular understandings of equality for their rational consistency.
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The kind of equality genuinely conducive to a prosperous and humane society is thus not the same “equality” touted by those wishing to capitalize on Burke’s “popular prejudices” for political gain. Equality before the law reflects commercial society’s animus against arbitrary use of state power and the legal privileging of particular groups. Only when equality is rightly understood will we be able to build and sustain societies that are both prosperous and freedom loving. (more)
