ABSTRACT
Men have always been politically unequal. Indeed, it may be doubted that the expression "political equality" has any basis in political experience. Many aspects of egalitarian thinking are not specifically concerned with the political order. This chapter focuses on the peculiar problems of political equality. Greater political equality increases the time and effort that members of the political community will devote to politics. Stated another way, the percentage of the social product put into political activities, such as elections, parties, and various forms of political communication, becomes larger. This is, incidentally, the reason why it has often been claimed that only a well-to-do community can afford political equality. Power is fluid when it rapidly changes hands, and even in the same hands it increases or decreases within short periods. Consensual power is more fluid power, and political equality produces more consensual power, that is, it alters the ratio of consensual to coercive power in favor of the consensual.
