The Price of Prestige

158 chapter six

among middle powers. These examples suggest that prestige symbols are

understood as a mechanism for identifying class membership. The hierar-

chical order of international society therefore is not so much a continuum

of individual actors but rather a stratified sequence of clusters and clubs.

Finally, in chapters 3 and 5 I focused on cases in which prestige symbols

show a remarkable level of endurance. Transit delegations were funded

even when technological developments demonstrated the futility of the

endeavor. Large naval vessels continued to be the focus of international at-

tention even when they were proven practically useless during World War I.

This endurance in the face of severe challenges cannot be easily explained

without reference to the symbolic meaning of the items in question. In

chapter 4 , on the other hand, I offered an example of a declining prestige

symbol. Peacekeeping has become too popular over the years because of

its relatively low price tag, and it has thus failed to maintain the necessary

allure of an exclusive status symbol. Once peacekeeping became déclassé,

it lost its appeal to elitist conspicuous consumers. Indeed, there is a sharp

decline in middle- power commitment to peacekeeping, especially when

compared with the relative lack of change in the list of foreign aid donors.

Conspicuous Consumption and Rational Choice

A prestige maximizer is still a rational actor. This rationalist approach,

which is retained throughout this volume, is not surprising given the ped-

igree of the theory. Veblen, an economist, wrote Theory of the Leisure

Class as a critique of the modern study of economics. Indeed, Veblen’s

actors are rational even when they behave in the most exaggerated and

counterproductive way. Stating that an actor is rational does not suggest

that she is socially blind. Veblen feared that by ignoring the effects of social

institutions, economics was becoming insensitive to important aspects of

economic and social life. This critique is especially poignant for the contem-

porary study of international relations at a time when the use of economic

analysis as a basis for understanding the political sphere is widespread.

As a theory that grew from within the rationalist approach, conspicuous

consumption offers a constructive critique that can potentially serve as a

means for reincorporating social aspects into rational choice models.

In essence, the theory does not attack the concept of rationality but

rather the way in which we understand and operationalize the concept

of utility. By limiting our understanding of utility to material factors, we