Carolina Quotes[I]nequality is an excellent proxy for the actual mechanisms that drive instability, but the actual drivers... are several, of which I will focus on two: popular immiseration and elite overproduction. ...[A]t a deep structural level the force that drives those and ultimately instability, is what I would refer to as the "wealth pump."
Peter Turchin Connected to the Carolinas
Source
2:14
- work
- Human environment across time (2023)
- year
- 2023
Cite this record
“[I]nequality is an excellent proxy for the actual mechanisms…” Peter Turchin. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-670F46E051. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/670f46e051
More from Peter Turchin
Structural-demographic theory was proposed 30 years ago. Although it was successively refined by other theorists... the theoretical core, and especially the emphasis on intra-elite competition and conflict as the most important driver of socio-political instability and state breakdown, remained constant. Over the past three decades, the theory was empirically tested by a growing number of researchers. Currently, there are detailed investigations of at least twenty crises... to test the predictions of the theory... [T]here are several dozen other less detailed examples. The... verdict is that.. predictions are well supported by data. ...[R]ival theories are not supported.
So here you see... in the political domain... in just the decade from 2000-2010... the number of candidates who have spent half a million dollars or more of their own money... the millionaires... have doubled during this period.
[T]here are important recurring patterns... throughout... human history over the past ten thousand years.