status symbols and luxury goods 53
visible. Only one country can own the largest navy in the world; only one
country can be the first to put a man on Mars. Other positional scarcities
can be created by institutions and organizations: the Security Council has
a finite number of permanent members; only one country can chair an or
ganization at any given time. Actors can try to reduce this scarcity by di
viding the system into subgroupings or by creating new organizations and
new roles in which they can obtain better positions. In this manner, Bra zil
can claim the largest navy in Latin America, while China can be the first
Asian power to send a man into space.
Finally, symbols that require the cultivation of expertise impose higher
costs, or “cultivation restrictions,” on newcomers, and hence they can cre
ate an effective test of status. Cultivation requires large investment over
time, extensive concentrated effort, discipline, and perseverance. Naval
procurement, for example, is an expensive and lengthy process. Most na
val programs take fifteen to twenty years before they can have any sig
nificant effect on the relative standing of world navies (Anthony 1990 , 9 ).
Similarly, the acquisition of submarines requires the construction of spe
cial shore installations, effective communication systems, and specialized
training for submarine crews. In fact, the costs of cultivation are often con
sidered to be a larger obstacle for countries who wish to gain submarine
forces than the procurement cost of the submarine itself (Anthony 1990 ,
51 ). Cultivation restrictions focus on the dimension of time as well as cost
and hence tend to support durable symbols that can withstand periods of
rapid technological advance and /or enhanced social mobility (Goffman
1951 , 303 ). The cultivation test, therefore, tends to favor “old money” and
to penalize the consumption patterns of the nouveaux riches.
The combination of all three categories of test of status restrictions can
help us in analyzing the effectiveness of international status symbols. Thus,
for example, we can explain the durability of the warship as a prominent
international prestige symbol by examining the specific qualities of large
naval vessels: warships are conspicuous and distinct; they were the main
instruments of power projection of the leading world powers for the last
few centuries; they are still symbols of modernity and industrial capabili
ties; very few countries in the world at almost any given time have pos
sessed a significant number of top of the line ships (Modelski and Thomp
son 1988 ); navies require a very high level of cultivation, maybe more so
than any other military service; and most importantly, navies have been,
and still are, extortionately expensive. The aircraft carrier, even more than
other contemporary warships, represents an almost archetypal example for
a potentially effective test of status.
