Equality of Opportunity and Condition Concepts Essay

Explain the concepts of equality of opportunity and equality of condition

The concept of equality of opportunity is founded on the political ideal that goes against class hierarchy. However, the ideal does not oppose the hierarchy but rather the social positioning of individuals in either inferior or superior levels. Under this principle, the placement of individuals in certain societal levels is opened up for all interested individuals and competition is developed with the involved parties being given equal opportunities to be at superior levels.

The equality of condition is an ideal that attempts to encourage individuals to have equally distributed wealth, power and status. While there are many issues that have contributed to social inequalities, the concept of equality of condition seeks to establish a strategy of addressing and reducing inequality of class, status and power through diversification of opportunities (Naiman 307). Through proper equality policies, it’s easier to achieve some goals of justice and fairness.

Do you think our current society allows for a good deal of social mobility? Why or why not?

The current society allows for social mobility. The earlier societal structure was based upon social stratification at which occupational and geographical barriers made it hard for individuals to be in equal environments. One of the most significant changes has been horizontal mobility that has individuals changing positions but not social classes. This occurs mostly in professions where movement is from positions to other positions of the same rank.

The occupational revolution that allows individuals from different social classes taking different positions has been influenced by the increase in educational opportunities. Access to education and attaining the required level of education to grant better employment posts has enhanced the opportunities of social mobility (Naiman 315).

Since education has been one of the greatest influences of class change, it has influenced the rate of class change in the society. Society has embraced the educational influence and attained the relevant qualifications to grant higher pays. This change in the occupational structure has enabled society to decrease the class differences and witness both horizontal and vertical mobility.

International migration is another factor that has influenced the rise in social mobility. The simplification of migration processes has enabled individuals from lower social levels to change upon residing in more developed areas. The number of Africans and Asians for example who has become wealthy after relocating to the western states is one of the indications of social mobility success. External welfare services and globalization have affected the societal changes and allowed for more people to acquire higher social status.

How have colonialism and imperialism contributed to global poverty?

According to the dependency theory, colonization and imperialism are to blame for the global poverty and especially in the developing nations. Wealthy nations took control and exploited the resources of the colonized nations.

This led to misuse of domestic resources and the colonized nations were not given an opportunity to manage and use the available resources for development purposes. In addition to taking the resources, wealthy nations also took manpower in form of slaves and this weakened the social and economic structures of the colonized nations.

Colonization and imperialism therefore denied the poor nations an opportunity to utilize their resources and with the embezzled assets and resources, colonized nations were left with lots of debts. Through colonization, resources were exploited to the benefit of the wealthy nations.

In addition, the economic and political structures in the colonized nations were shattered and while some managed to recover, others are still struggling with the effects. The destabilization of the social, economic, and political systems of poor nations has influenced the poverty levels in the world, since there are many nations still struggling to stabilize.

Work Cited

Naiman, Joane. How Societies Work Class, Power and Change in a Canadian Context. Toronto, ON: Thomson Canada Limited, 2004. Print.