deep freedom 321those who insist on transforming the institutional structure of society
to the end of achieving a greater life for all. Th ey do not want merely to
substitute one structure for another. Th ey want to change the sense in
which the structure is a structure, by making the social order hospi-
table to structure- defying structure, which is to say by rendering it
friendly to freedom. Th is transformation may be gradual and piece-
meal in its method but nevertheless radical in its outcome if it persists,
informed by a developing idea of freedom, in a par tic u lar direction.
Th e practical signifi cance of deep freedom is made clear by spelling
out its implications for in e qual ity of circumstance.
First, no in e qual ity of circumstance should be tolerated that threat-
ens either equality of respect or equality of opportunity. Th ese two as-
pects of equality form part of freedom. Th ey can be secured only by the
combination of the public defense of an inclusive idea of freedom (to
which the religion of the future gives the most comprehensive support)
with an institutionalized broadening of access to economic and educa-
tional opportunity. It is as the result of the force of institutional ar-
rangements resistant to revision that such inequalities exert their eff ect.
It is by appealing to a defective, partial idea of freedom that they retain
their authority. Th e correction of such inequalities should therefore
rely fi rst and foremost on the change of institutions and the criticism of
beliefs, only secondarily on compensatory redistribution.
Second, inequalities of circumstance resulting in inequalities of op-
portunity or respect become especially damaging when they are ex-
pressed as privileged holds on the economic, po liti cal, or cultural resources
with which we create the future within the present. If, for example, the
result of an in e qual ity of circumstance is to allow a certain class of soci-
ety to exert decisive infl uence over the government, under the disguise
of demo cratic institutions, and in eff ect to buy po liti cal infl uence, the
system of freedom is violated. Once again, inclusive engagement in the
creation of the future within the present requires, above all, innovation
in our arrangements and beliefs, regarding the or ga ni za tion of the mar-
ket economy, of demo cratic politics, and of civil society.
Th ird, inequalities of circumstance that have as their consequence
or their expression the subversion of free labor; or the predominance of
the inferior form of free labor, wage work, over the superior forms, self-
employment and cooperation; or the consignment of people to work