Welfare, Ethnicity and Altruism : New Data and Evolutionary Theory

ISBN-13: 9780714654270 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 341 str.

Frank Salter

Opis

Welfare, Ethnicity, and Altruism applies the controversial theory of 'Ethnic Nepotism', first formulated by Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt and Pierre van den Berghe, to the modern welfare state (both are authors in this volume). This theory states that ethnic groups resemble large families whose members are prone to cooperate due to 'kin altruism'. Recent empirical findings in economics and political science offer confirmatory evidence. The book presents two separate studies that compare welfare expenditures around the world, both indicating that the more ethnically mixed a population becomes, the greater is its resistance to redistributive policies. A study of donations to the United Way of America charity finds that White Americans give less when their communities are more than 10 per cent non-White. Still another study, based on observations of giving to street beggars in Moscow, finds an ethnic-nepotistic effect. In a fascinating twist, cohesive regional ethnic groups such as the francophones of Quebec can sometimes leverage additional welfare from the central government. On a related theme, a global survey finds that the most generous foreign aid comes from the most homogeneous count

Spis treści

Introduction: The symposium target paper in broader context Part 1: Does Ethnic Heterogeneity Depress Public Altruism in Multi-Ethnic Societies? 1. Urban Begging and Ethnic Nepotism in Russia: An ethnological pilot study 2. Ethnic Diversity, Population Size and Charitable Giving at the Local Level in the United States 3. Ethnic Heterogeneity and Public Spending: Testing the evolutionary theory of ethnicity with cross-national data 4. An Exploratory Comparative Study of the Relationship between Ethnic Heterogeneity and Welfare Politics 5. Reconciling the Differences between Sanderson's and Vanhanen's Results Part 2: Welfare Broadly Defined 6. Ethnic Heterogeneity and Economic Growth: Ethnolinguistic diversity, government and growth 7. Ethnic Diversity, Foreign Aid, Economic Growth, Population Policy, Welfare, Inequality, Conflict and the Costs of Globalism: A perspective on W. Masters and M. McMillan's findings Part 3: Explanation and Prediction: Does evolutionary theory help? 8. The Limits of Chimpanzee Charity: Strategies of meat sharing in communities of wild apes 9. Selfish Cooperation, Loyalty Structures and Proto-Ethnocentrism in Intergroup Agonistic Behaviour 10. Canadian Welfare Policy and Ethnopolitics: Toward an evolutionary model 11. Why Welfare States Rise and Fall: Ethnicity, belief systems, and environmental influences on the support for public goods Part 4: Ethical and Policy Implications 12. Ethnicity, the Problem of Differential Altruism, and International Multiculturalism 13. Affirmative Action and Ethnic Nepotism 14. The Evolutionary Deficit in Mainstream Political Theory

O autorze

Frank Salter