Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

THE APPEAL OF ENVY IN POLITICS
The appeal of envy in politics
The role of envy becomes patent when, for instance, the legislator
shrinks from passing overdue measures, in themselves sensible and of
undoubted economic benefit to the community, through fear of the latent
envy or indignation of those to whom the measures might at first be
relatively detrimental. Housing policy in various countries shows many
examples of this. The factor of envy is also prominent in the case of fiscal
measures of a vindictive and confiscatory nature, such as progressive
income tax, death duties and other related forms of taxation. As we shall
see, welfare economists are coming more and more to face the question
of envy and to discuss it explicitly.
In the name of an unattainable equality the legislator uses fiscal means
of disproportionate severity to tax the few who, for whatever reasonseven
for avowedly legitimate reasons-are economically greatly more
successful or better endowed than the majority. Sociological research
has shown the extent to which this demand for levelling originates with
certain groups of intellectuals, the average voter feeling hardly any
definite envy towards those with really high incomes,4 for the objects of
our envy are generally those who are almost our equals.
Nor are we fully aware, as a rule, of the extent to which politicians
exploit a latent guilty conscience among people or groups that are
economically above average. In other words, certain economic or fiscal
policies are put into effect less from evidence of any real, socially
dangerous feelings of envy among the poorer classes than by playing on
an irrational sense of guilt. People feel they must do something because
they are so well off; but whether any effective results will accrue to the
supposed beneficiaries is a question rarely asked. In this context it would
be worth investigating the mania for making wild promises during
parliamentary elections, which I believe is not only based on calculated
vote-catching but is often a ritual device to relieve many politicians'
consciences.
3 This was particularly clear, for example, in the Labour Party's nationalization
programme after 1945. See W W Haynes, Nationalization in Practice. The British
Coallndustry, Cambridge, Mass., 1954, especially pp. 69,115,159,163,177,184,
385.
4 See, for instance, R. E. Lane, 'The Fear of Equality,' in American Political Science
Quarterly, Vol. 53, 1959, pp. 35-51.
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