Princeton University Press
Envy in Politics
Key Metrics
- Gwyneth H McClendon
- Princeton University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780691178653
- 8.6 X 5.8 X 1.1 inches
- 1 pounds
- Political Science > Comparative Politics
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
How envy, spite, and the pursuit of admiration influence politics
Why do governments underspend on policies that would make their constituents better off? Why do people participate in contentious politics when they could reap benefits if they were to abstain? In Envy in Politics, Gwyneth McClendon contends that if we want to understand these and other forms of puzzling political behavior, we should pay attention to envy, spite, and the pursuit of admiration--all manifestations of our desire to maintain or enhance our status within groups. Drawing together insights from political philosophy, behavioral economics, psychology, and anthropology, McClendon explores how and under what conditions status motivations influence politics.
Through surveys, case studies, interviews, and an experiment, McClendon argues that when concerns about in-group status are unmanaged by social conventions or are explicitly primed by elites, status motivations can become drivers of public opinion and political participation. McClendon focuses on the United States and South Africa--two countries that provide tough tests for her arguments while also demonstrating that the arguments apply in different contexts.
From debates over redistribution to the mobilization of collective action, Envy in Politics presents the first theoretical and empirical investigation of the connection between status motivations and political behavior.
Author Bio
I am Associate Professor in the Wilf Family Department of Politics at New York University. During the 2021-2022 academic year, I am a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. My research agendas are in the areas of political psychology, religious and ethnic politics, identity, and political participation.
I have done research in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and in the United States. I am a founder of the Identities & Ideologies Project at NYU. My first book, Envy in Politics (Princeton University Press, 2018), examines how people's desires for high within-group status can influence their political behavior; it won the Robert Lane Best Book Award from the APSA Political Psychology Section. My second book, From Pews to Politics (co-authored with Rachel Riedl, Cambridge University Press, 2019), examines how exposure to religious ideas can influence whether and how people participate in politics; it was a finalist for the Albert J. Raboteau Book Prize.
Source: Gwyneth H McClendon personal site
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