The (Ambivalent) Tradition of Equality in America
This chapter considers the place of equality, in all its complexity, in the American civic culture. It draws evidence from several sources: the debates occasioned by the drafting and ratification of the federal constitution, Supreme Court decisions, the fifty constitutions of the separate states, and public opinion as measured in surveys over the past several decades. In considering American understandings of equality, this chapter moves beyond an emphasis on equality of political voice to encompass the multiple aspects of the concept of equality. A brief look at these sources provides a context of normative debate in which to understand the empirical evidence that forms the bulk of this work and suggests that, while Americans are egalitarians, they are somewhat ambivalent egalitarians.