The Price of Prestige

2 chapter one

others engage in expensive foreign- aid programs of little benefit to the re-

cipients; small, poor, landlocked countries procure navies; the superpow-

ers continue to hold nuclear arsenals well in excess of the amount needed

to counter any conceivable threat. International relations, therefore, pro-

vide us with many examples of contemporary Elephant Kings, complete

with imposing modern equivalents of ivory- covered towers.

A Veblenian analysis views consumption as a communicative act — a

social signal (Campbell 1995 , 114 ). The ensuing signaling game involves

continuous and simultaneous cycles of emulation and distinction as actors

struggle to define their position in the social hierarchy. Thorstein Veblen,

who introduced this model in his seminal book The Theory of the Leisure

Class ( 1899 ), used it as a socioeconomic critique of what he considered

an increasingly rigid and overly material study of economics. For Veblen,

it is impossible to understand consumption decisions without accounting

for human motivations and social institutions. Consumption is not solely

inner directed, aimed at satisfying actors’ needs and desires, but is also

other directed, aimed at demonstrating what one is able and willing to af-

ford. In this sense, consumption is a deeply social act. This is true for the

political realm as well. Policy decisions are not only a means for achiev-

ing specific material goals but are also a gesture to be observed by other

peers.

A glance at several concrete examples can help further elucidate both

the theoretical argument as well as the empirical puzzles this book seeks

to explain. On the morning of October 15 , 2003 , the Chinese spacecraft

Shenzhou V blasted off from the Gobi Desert, carrying with it China’s first

astronaut, Yang Liwei. Yang’s historic flight is part of an ambitious Chi-

nese space program that includes plans for a manned moon landing by the

year 2020. Most observers saw this mission as a “part of Beijing’s plans to

create a space industry and earn the prestige of joining the United States

and Russia as the only nations to have sent humans into space” (Demaria

2001 ). Yet it is not necessarily clear why China would seek prestige (or be

able to acquire it) by embarking on a mission that was abandoned years

ago by the United States as a result of its low utility and prohibitive price

tag. Brazil, similarly, chose to spend much- needed resources on a dubious

purchase. In 2000 , Brazil spent most of its naval procurement budget on

the purchase of an aging French aircraft carrier of little or no strategic

value. This was the highlight of a wider naval buildup trying to “reinsert

the country into the graces of the major powers” (Brazilian Defense white

paper, as quoted in Jane’s Defense Weekly, September 29 , 1999 ). Here