The Price of Prestige

118 chapter four

The rise and fall of the Nordic model provides an instructive example

of the cyclical nature of status symbols. Peacekeeping was abandoned by

middle powers since it proved to be a poor marker of status.

Foreign aid shows higher levels of stability on all fronts: the identity

of the donors, the recipients, and the average levels of development aid

(Kosack and Tobin 2006 ; Hook and Zhang 1998 ; Van der Veen 2000 ).

DAC statistics for member Official Development Aid (ODA) levels in

the nineties, for example, show a correlation of 0. 92 , which suggests very

few changes in rank over this period.^25 Only three new members (Luxem-

burg, Greece, and South Korea) joined the DAC in the last two decades.

DAC entry requirements, which include the creation of substantive do-

mestic aid bureaucracies, impose significant cultivation restrictions that

further encourage stability.^26 While part of this stability can be explained

by the bureaucratic nature of ODA, especially when compared with the

volatile ad hoc nature of peacekeeping missions, some is also a conse-

quence of the dynamics of international status symbols. The high cost of

foreign aid ensures an effective test of status and with it lasting exclusivity.

Yet the markers of conspicuous consumption are evident even within

this established club of donors. The conspicuous consumption model of

prosociality leads us to expect greater participation of middle powers in

aid donations when compared to other donors. Hence, this “middleness”

hypothesis should lead to a curvilinear relation between relative aid lev-

els and GDP size. Quantitative studies that look into this question, most

notably Hoadly ( 1980 ), Round and Odedokun ( 2003 ), and Van der Veen

( 2000 ), tend to support the middle- powers hypothesis. Hoadly finds that

within the OECD, smaller countries tend to be more generous. These

smaller OECD members include many of the traditional middle powers.

In a previous study I replicated and extended Hoadly’s study to the post –

Cold War era (Gilady 2006 ). I found robust support for the middleness

hypothesis. Actors who are closest to the mean (those closest to the “mid-

dle”) tend to be more generous. Interestingly, the data show a consistently

positive and significant correlation between military spending and foreign

aid. This last finding refutes the notion that prosocial actors are inherently

more pacific.^27

Conclusions

The conspicuous consumption model solves the tension between Hil-

lel’s two maxims. For prestige maximizers, prosocial other- help and self-