The Price of Prestige

the aircraft carrier club 65

Italy was forced to divert resources away from essential components of na-

val power in order to keep up appearances. The growing tension between

form and substance was not sustainable over time. The British, on the other

hand, showed their preference for conspicuousness by deferring to Italian

grandeur even when it should have been quite clear to them that it held

very little substance. This type of seemingly irrational deference is to be

expected in a society with established and enduring symbols of prestige.

These implications of conspicuous consumption can generate provocative

suggestions for naval planners.

In the light of the highly selective nature of political perceptions of naval power,

one might be tempted to advocate ship configurations that emphasize explicitly

the visible variables of naval power at the expense of those that are less trans-

parent... to deploy bigger ships with bigger weapons.... To frighten South

Yemen or encourage the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi one does not need a powerful

sonar under the hull or a digital data system in the superstructure. If the saliency

of political missions (and low intensity conflict) is accorded the priority that

the present state of international politics would seem to warrant, forceplanning

may yet take the path of more visible and less sophisticated sea power. (Luttwak

1974 , 42 – 47 )

Luttwak’s analysis of naval power fits very comfortably with the con-

spicuous consumption argument. The salience of navies as instruments of

prestige makes them especially attractive as targets of prestige policies.

This could create discernable distortions in patterns of naval procurement.

Indeed, Wettern ( 1982 , 1108 ) finds “comparatively few navies that could

be described as adequate and well- balanced to support national policies

and aspirations.” If this is true for navies in general, it should be even

more so for the most conspicuous and salient naval weapon system — the

aircraft carrier.

Deterrence and Conspicuous Consumption

One of the most easily recognizable aspects of the Veblenian approach is

its emphasis on the conspicuousness of consumption. Because only visible

consumption can serve as an effective social signal, prestige- seeking behav-

ior manifests itself through public acquisition of conspicuous goods. Look-

ing at conspicuousness as a variable that differentiates between different