Political Ideologies if We Look

Political Ideologies If we look at Socialism, first of all, the first main think that should be noted in relation to its perception of equality is the fact that the concept of equality came from the basic perception that the industrial revolution had given way to social relations in which owners and the bourgeoisie suppressed the working class. In this sense, Socialist theoreticians promoted equality as an alternative society in which the proletariat would revolt against bourgeoisie oppression and revolt against the capitalist owners.

In its very basic form, Socialism encouraged the eradication of all property as a direct mechanism to initiate complete social equality. This meant that all property would have been commonly owned by all individuals in the society.

While modern Socialism pulled away from these perceptions and encouraged different forms of quality promotions, Communism developed and implemented them into practice in Communist states, where property was in the hands of the local Communist Party and where equality was suppose to derive from the population's capacity to access the local resources (all this in theory). This was the more radical stance of Socialism, often identified with Communism, although the two political trends were on the same level of radicalism in their beginnings.

However, nowadays, Socialism takes a less radical stance towards promoting equality for all economic classes. Many of the measures promoted by Socialists today include increased governmental spending, creating new workplaces and decreasing unemployment, increasing workers' wages and improving working conditions etc. Today, Socialist promotion of equality is more likely to be identified, in Western countries, with the "Third Way" that Tony Blair implemented in Britain, for example. This includes previously mentioned measures such as increased governmental spending, directing funds towards education and health sectors etc.

Referring to Liberalism, we should first of all point out that liberalism does not necessarily limit its perceptions only to economic equality, as is the case with Socialism, but it extends its beliefs to the sector of civil and individual equality. This means that liberalism has always found itself as a promoter of human rights, as a sustainer of political freedom and the right to self - determination.

Going forth from these social and political perceptions, the social equality that liberalism promotes naturally leads to a policy of tolerance at a societal level. Liberal governances are generally know to be tolerant in terms of rights for social or religious minorities. On the other hand, in terms of economic policies, liberalism promotes equality rather through the laissez-faire philosophy, through the capacity.