Egalitarianism refers to a family of ethical and ideological ideas that promote social, political, economic, and cultural equality. Egalitarianism usually regards some existing social arrangement as indefensible – an inequality based on inappropriate differential treatment – and calls for replacing that system. Egalitarianism strives to achieve equality for all people, regardless of their race, nationality, gender, religion, or class. There are three main types of egalitarianism. The first desires to attain full legal equality, e.g. that the state and all of its institutions treat all people the same. The second type of egalitarianism promotes equality of chances – that all people have the same chances of success and opportunities to fulfill their goals. This type of egalitarianism might necessitate some type of welfare state or preferential treatment of those who are disadvantaged. The third type of egalitarianism demands total equality of outcomes for everybody. The main goal of ideologies such as communism and anarcho-communism is exactly that third type of egalitarianism.  

References:

Bouglé. Les idées égalitaires: Étude sociologique (1899);

     -     Le solidarisme (1924);

Fromm. The Sane Society (1955);

     -     The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973);

Glass. Social Mobility in Britain (1954);

Lipset. Class, Status and Power: Social Stratification in Comparative Perspective (1953);

     -     Social Mobility in Industrial Society (1959);

Moore. Authority and Inequality under Capitalism and Socialism (1987);

     -     Moral Aspects of Economic Growth, and Other Essays (1995);

Moufe. The Democratic Paradox (2000);

Runciman. Relative Deprivation and Social Justice: A Study of Attitudes to Social Inequality in Twentieth-Century Britain (1966);

Sanderson. Social Transformations: A General Theory of Historical Development (1995);

Tocqueville. Democracy in America (2021, in French 1835, 1840).