explaining conspicuous consumption 29
have to invent new prestige symbols in the hope of creating more effec-
tive restrictions on new admissions to their exclusive club.^51 Furthermore,
normative and material changes are also likely to be reflected by lagging
corresponding changes in the different structures of prestige in the inter-
national society, further enhancing the rise or decline of existing prestige
symbols.
The combination of price, conspicuousness, hierarchy, and cycles of
prestige symbols is distinctive to the Veblenian approach. If we can find
evidence of all four dimensions in important policy choices that states
actually make, that will provide powerful support for the validity of the
theory.
In the next chapter I further develop this theoretical account by ana-
lyzing the way in which price, conspicuousness, and hierarchy are trans-
lated into the consumption of specific status symbols. In the subsequent
three chapters, I explore three cases in which the theory of conspicuous
consumption offers a much better account of why states have made cer-
tain policy choices than more conventional rational choice approaches
that limit their analysis to states’ pursuit of primary utilities.
Carriers, Peacekeepers, and Astronomers
The biggest challenge to this theoretical account is to establish that states
actually engage in conspicuous consumption. In many ways a preference
for waste and excess stands at odds with rational state behavior as conven-
tionally understood. Accordingly, for conspicuous consumption to matter,
it does not need to happen all the time (in every consumption decision)
or to be consistently present in the decisions of all actors. It simply needs
to recur with some regularity and to affect significant policy decisions.
Once we detect conspicuous consumption in some policy spheres, we are
obliged to consider the possibility that it plays some role in many other
decisions as well. Because conventional rationalist approaches to interna-
tional relations offer little room for conspicuous consumption, identify-
ing illustrative cases of the phenomenon generates a broader theoretical
challenge. It forces us to consider prestige as a significant motivation in
international relations.
Cases of conspicuous consumption are particularly striking when they
concern issues of national security. If there were any issue areas in which we
would expect actors to follow functional, material, and cautious policies,
