Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

396 SOCIAL REVOLUTIONS
revolution of any significance he discovered socialist emotions and
expectations. By 'socialism,' he understands collective property that
goes beyond the communal sense already present in the society in
question, and which therefore necessitates compulsory measures. In so
far as any revolution, by definition, involves a weakening of legitimate
authority, there will always be people only too ready to believe that this
means anything is permissible. Roscher mentions the manifestations of
socialistic feeling, for instance, in England in Wycliffe's time, or in
Bohemia during the Hussite wars. 1
Explicit doubts as to the legitimacy of private property will arise,
Roscher says, only if three conditions are simultaneously fulfilled:
1. A direct confrontation of rich and poor, resulting in the envy of
desperation.
2. A highly evolved division of labour, promoting the growth of
mutual dependence and hence of potential points of friction, thus
making it more and more difficult for the less-well-educated man to
recognize the connection between performance and reward.
3. Unrealistic demands by the lower classes after the introduction of
democratic institutions: the contrast, for example, between theoretical
rights and the practical inability to make much use of them. Roscher sees
these factors at work in the peasant wars, when the wealth of the Fuggers
existed alongside organized bands of beggars.
The lower classes had fallen on bad times through the devaluation of
gold and silver. Many people, at the time of the peasant wars, inveighed
against the lUXury indulged in by some people, and against imported
goods. The more foreign trade increased, the greater was the division of
labour. These made possible luxury and conspicuous consumption, so
arousing the greed of the ordinary man, who further misunderstood
many of the reformers' sermons on the equality of all Christians before
God, taking them to mean equality in the material sense.
Anti-colonial movements
A similar situation has arisen from time to time since the Second World
War in various underdeveloped areas-Asia, Africa and South
1 W. Roscher, Geschichte der NationaLOkonomik in Deutschland, Munich, 1874,
pp.80f.