L’idée d’égalité chez Émile de Laveleye

Émile de Laveleye (1822-1892), a lawyer by training, was professor of political economy at the University of Liège. Among other topics, he published numerous writings on the organisation of the Belgian political system. This article clarifies the place occupied by the idea of equality in his writings, based on material from 43 of these publications. After having identified the causes which, according to Émile de Laveleye, underlie the inequalities within a political system, this article analyses the way in which he wishes to give concrete expression to the idea of equality, through his relationship to freedom, education and universal suffrage and the promotion of socialist ideas.