Social instability and redistribution of income

Rational agents can express discontent with a given distribution of income by threatening to disrupt an economy, if such a threat is profitable. This paper describes such circumstances in a two-class model. Social stability constraints define the acceptable set of income distributions, the range of which is determined by the extent to which income-generating abilities are vulnerable to disruption. Opportunities for disruption vary across stages of economic development. There is possibly no stable distribution in a low developed economy, whereas in an advanced economy, characterized by complex and interdependent production, stable distributions exist. This distinction provides a basis for the observed increasing significance of social stabilization by redistributive policy in the course of economic development. European Journal of Political Economy Ž . Vol. 15 1999 35–51 Social instability and redistribution of income