The Political Economy of Hatred by Edward L . Glaeser
نویسنده
چکیده
What determines the intensity and objects of hatred? Hatred forms when people believe that out-groups are responsible for past and future crimes, but the reality of past crimes has little to do with the level of hatred. Instead, hatred is the result of an equilibrium where politicians supply stories of past atrocities in order to discredit the opposition and consumers listen to them. The supply of hatred is a function of the degree to which minorities gain or lose from particular party platforms, and as such, groups that are particularly poor or rich are likely to be hated. Strong constitutions that limit the policy space and ban specific anti-minority policies will limit hate. The demand for hatred falls if consumers interact regularly with the hated group, unless their interactions are primarily abusive. The power of hatred is so strong that opponents of hatred motivate their supporters by hating the haters. * I am grateful to George Akerlof, Alberto Alesina, William Easterly, Lawrence Katz, David Laibson, Steven Levitt, George Loewenstein, Richard Posner, Jose Scheinkman, Jesse Shapiro and Andrei Shleifer for extremely helpful comments, and to the NSF for financial assistance. My thinking on this topic is particularly indebted to Paul Romer.
منابع مشابه
The Political Economy of Hatred*
This paper develops a model of the interaction between the supply of hatecreating stories from politicians and the willingness of voters to listen to hatred. Hatred is fostered with stories of an out-group’s crimes, but the impact of these stories comes from repetition not truth. Hate-creating stories are supplied by politicians when such actions help to discredit opponents whose policies benef...
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