ABSTRACT
The critique of inequality in modern society is well known in sociology. It is important to turn to the liberal and conservative critique of citizenship as bureaucratic equality to understand the problem of individualism in relationship to the growth of socioeconomic rights of modern citizenship. The various dimensions of citizenship give rise to the principle of equality and equality is often regarded as incompatible with another important value of modern society namely, individualism. Individualism and civil citizenship were compatible with an emphasis on equality of opportunity that is, with the freedom of the bourgeoisie to utilize its wealth and talent in the accumulation of merit and wealth. If one regards democracy as the essential political environment for the growth of civil and political citizenship, the development of political equality is a necessary feature of the modernization of the state and the political process.
