Socialisms commitment to equality is widely seen as its defining feature. Unlike other ideologies, socialists tend to promote equality of outcome rather than merely equality of opportunity. Socialists support equality because it not only stands alone as one of their core beliefs but it is also linked to other core beliefs that socialists hold. Social equality underpins community and cooperation. If people live in equal social circumstances, they will be more likely to identify with one another and work together for the common good. Social inequality, on the other hand, breeds competition and pits people against each other. Socialists strongly support common ownership because owning private property breeds inequality and greed as people with property want more and those without it wish to gain it. As property is created by the collective effort then it should be distributed evenly and everybody should have an equal amount. This is what socialists believe, and it is this belief in equality in every aspect that sets socialism apart from other ideologies and supports the theory that socialism is defined by its commitment to equality.
However, before it can be stated that socialism is defined by equality, it has to be considered that there are numerous different branches of socialism and each different sector has a different view on equality and a different set of core values. Fundamentalist socialists and Marxists seek to abolish capitalism altogether and replace it with a completely different social system. The complete abolition of capitalism is egalitarian as it promotes a fundamental change in the set up to society and moves towards a completely equal, classless society.
On the other hand, whilst social democrats still promote equality, they do not promote complete equality of outcome; instead they focus on narrowing the gaps between social classes. Due to changed circumstances, namely capitalisms ability to adapt, social democrats abandoned some original socialist beliefs and turned to supporting a mixed economy.
