Parity of esteem is a concept which can be applied in a variety of contexts.

As a political philosophy

Parity of esteem can be used to establish a theory to overcome inter-communal conflict. Promoters of the theory argue that ''"parity of esteem"'' "offers a language for negotiation of a post-conflict equilibrium". This negotiation begins with the communities recognising the stalemate of their position. Rather than continue trying to out-do each other, the communities should attempt to negotiate a peaceful coexistence in a shared physical space despite their cultural differences. ''"Parity of esteem"'' can be described as a post-Enlightenment theory as it differs drastically from classical liberal or

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy' ...

and is contrary to 20th-century ideas of "

self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a '' jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It sta ...

" or the 19th-century idea of the

nation-state A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may in ...

. Many of these anticipated a "withering away of

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

" once minorities were brought within the nation-state. These concepts are today the most dominant within contemporary political theory. As

Ernest Gellner Ernest André Gellner FRAI (9 December 1925 – 5 November 1995) was a British- Czech philosopher and social anthropologist described by ''The Daily Telegraph'', when he died, as one of the world's most vigorous intellectuals, and by ''The ...

writes, "the idea that political boundaries must be congruent with ethnic ones, that rulers must not be ethnically distinguishable from the ruled now has a salience and authority which it has never possessed in the previous history of mankind". Where Enlightenment theories addressed issues of inter-communal conflict, it did so either by promoting "non-sectarianism" against "tribalism" (liberalism) or emphasising "class politics" against "

bourgeois nationalism In Marxism, bourgeois nationalism is the practice by the ruling classes of deliberately dividing people by nationality, race, ethnicity, or religion, so as to distract them from engaging in class struggle. It is seen as a divide-and-conquer stra ...

" (Marxism). Neither of these approaches recognised the traditions of belligerents in inter-communal conflicts. ''"Parity of esteem"'' on the other hand can accepts various nationalist traditions within one state. Interest in ''"parity of esteem"'' approaches emerged during the mid-1980s and accelerated following the fall of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the gover ...

and the

Yugoslav wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...

of the early 1990s. It was recognised that while there were 184 independent states, there were more than 600 living language groups and more than 5,000

ethnic groups An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

. Simply put, without enough geo-political space, slogans such as the Serb nationalist claim for "All Serbs in One State" were simply unworkable. Since the end of the 1990s, ''"Parity of esteem"'' is a core concept to the

Northern Ireland peace process The Northern Ireland peace process includes the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and subsequent political developm ...

Health care

''"Parity of Esteem for Mental Health"'' is an issue for many

healthcare system Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profes ...

s because of the pervasive stigma of mental illness. People with diagnosed mental illness die on average around 20 years earlier than those without such a diagnosis, some because of suicide, but mostly because of poorly treated physical illness. Mental illness has been assessed as constituting around a quarter of the

disease burden Disease burden is the impact of a health problem as measured by financial cost, mortality, morbidity, or other indicators. It is often quantified in terms of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) or disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Both ...

in developed countries. There is much bigger treatment gap for mental illness than for physical illness. In the USA legislation was enacted in 2006 which attempted to achieve equality in health insurance coverage between surgical treatment and mental health treatments. In the UK

Norman Lamb Sir Norman Peter Lamb (born 16 September 1957) is a British politician and solicitor. He was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for North Norfolk from 2001 to 2019, and was the chair of the Science and Technology Select Committ ...

campaigned for mental health to be given parity of esteem with physical health. The

Royal College of Psychiatrists The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental healt ...

proposed that parity of esteem should be defined as "Valuing mental health equally with physical health". In practice most arguments have been centred on levels of funding. Expenditure on mental health services provided by NHS trusts fell by around 8.25% between 2010 and 2015. According to Dr Phil Moore chair of the Mental Health Commissioners Network at NHS Clinical Commissioners discussions in 2016 had degenerated into a funding dispute. He wanted to see discussions about the degree to which mental health is embedded into other services, including the integration of psychological services with general practice It has also been raised as an issue when comparing pay and conditions in healthcare with social care, where pay is generally much lower.

References

* Tom Hennessey and Robin Wilson, 1997,
With All Due Respect: Pluralism and Parity of Esteem
', Democratic Dialogue, {{reflist Political theories Mental health Discrimination