In The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century, Walter Scheidel offers an account of how ‘Four Horsemen’ – warfare; revolution; state collapse; and pandemics – have been the primary mode through which income levelling has occurred throughout history. While this is a key contribution to the study of inequality, Roberto Iacono hopes it will inspire scholars to highlight alternative paths and interpretations based on peaceful levelling

Iacono, Roberto

LSE Research Online

Book	Review:	The	Great	Leveler:	Violence	and	theHistory	of	Inequality	from	the	Stone	Age	to	theTwenty-First	Century	by	Walter	ScheidelIn	The	Great	Leveler:	Violence	and	the	History	of	Inequality	from	the	Stone	Age	to	the	Twenty-First	Century,Walter	Scheidel	offers	an	account	of	how	‘Four	Horsemen’	–	warfare;	revolution;	state	collapse;	and	pandemics	–have	been	the	primary	mode	through	which	income	levelling	has	occurred	throughout	history.	While	this	is	a	keycontribution	to	the	study	of	inequality,	Roberto	Iacono	hopes	it	will	inspire	scholars	to	highlight	alternative	paths	andinterpretations	based	on	peaceful	levelling.	If	you	are	interested	in	this	review,	you	may	like	to	listen	to	a	recording	of	Water	Scheidel’s	lecture,	‘The	GreatLeveler’,	recorded	at	the	LSE	on	27	November	2017.	The	Great	Leveler:	Violence	and	the	History	of	Inequality	from	the	Stone	Age	to	the	Twenty-First	Century.Walter	Scheidel.	Princeton	University	Press.	2017.Find	this	book:	In	the	last	few	years,	the	most	authoritative	authors	in	the	economic	and	socialsciences	have	fiercely	competed	to	provide	new	ways	of	interpreting	the	long-runwaves	of	inequality,	highlighting,	for	instance,	the	role	of	capital	and	top	incomes	andchanges	in	preferences	for	redistribution	(see,	among	others,	Tony	Atkinson,	ThomasPiketty	and	Branko	Milanovic).Walter	Scheidel	adds	himself	to	this	group	of	leading	academics	in	an	exemplary	waywith	The	Great	Leveler:	Violence	and	the	History	of	Inequality	from	the	Stone	Age	tothe	Twenty-First	Century,	drawing	upon	the	most	dramatic	historical	examples	ofwealth	and	income	levelling	(i.e.	reductions	in	the	degree	of	inequality	in	thedistribution)	all	the	way	from	hunter-gatherer	societies	to	the	present.	The	grounds	forpicking	such	a	long	analytical	timespan	appear	more	a	strength	than	a	weakness	inthe	book,	which	provides	a	largely	coherent	amount	of	detailed	historical	evidence.Scheidel’s	main	thesis	unfolds	as	follows:	deep	and	long-lasting	levelling	of	both	theabsolute	and	relative	degree	of	income	and	wealth	inequality	has	found	its	place	primarily	in	conjunction	with	the‘Four	Horsemen’	of	levelling:	namely,	mass	mobilisation	warfare;	transformative	revolutions	(such	as	communism);state	collapse;	and	plague	and	pandemic	episodes.All	of	these	have	acted	mainly	in	one	direction	with	the	remuneration	to	labour	increasing	or	at	least	keeping	constantits	share,	on	the	one	hand,	whilst	reducing,	on	the	other	hand,	the	remuneration	to	capital	and	landholders.	Massmobilisation	warfare	made	levelling	a	natural	consequence	of	unexpected	state	tax	collection	and	active	interventionsin	the	economy	in	order	to	sustain	war	expenses.	Transformative	revolutions	in	China	and	the	Soviet	Union	led	todramatic	levelling	consequences	for	local	populations,	although	based	on	ideological	motives	rather	than	war.	Theexamples	of	state	collapse	provided	in	the	book	coherently	show	that	top	income	earners	and	rentiers	had	most	tolose	from	the	disruption	of	established	political	and	economic	structures,	whether	authoritarian	or	democratic.	Finally,episodes	such	as	the	European	Black	Death	of	the	mid-1300s	are	shown	to	act	mostly	on	the	demographicstructures	underlying	income	and	wealth	distribution,	with	important	consequences	in	terms	of	the	shortage	ofworkers	resulting	in	higher	labour	wages.LSE Review of Books: Book Review: The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century by WalterScheidelPage 1 of 3		Date originally posted: 2018-02-23Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2018/02/23/book-review-the-great-leveler-violence-and-the-history-of-inequality-from-the-stone-age-to-the-twenty-first-century-by-walter-scheidel/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/Image	Credit:	(david	pacey	CC	BY	2.0)The	most	innovative,	and	to	some	extent	debatable,	of	the	author’s	arguments	are	related	to	Part	II	of	the	book	onmass	mobilisation	warfare	and	its	effects	in	terms	of	income	levelling.	Scheidel	claims	that	the	two	World	Wars	standas	the	single	ultimate	cause	of	levelling	in	the	twentieth	century,	both	within	the	war	periods	but	also	long	afterwardsdue	to	their	political	and	economic	consequences.	The	book	provides	a	detailed	account	of	the	Japanese	example	interms	of	its	preparations	for	the	war,	where	government	regulation	and	interventions	in	the	productive	structures	ofthe	economy	(previously	governed	by	the	so-called	zaibatsu	system	of	business	conglomerates)	not	only	reducedincomes	from	capital	directly,	but	also	resulted	in	galloping	inflation,	permanently	flattening	income	distribution.Scheidel	shows	as	well	that	for	most	European	and	Western	countries,	declines	in	top	income	shares	(the	share	oftotal	income	received	by	the	population	at	the	very	top	of	the	income	distribution)	were	undoubtedly	more	significantin	the	war	periods	than	in	the	post-war	era	(Table	5.2,	135-36).	This	evidence	is	not	only	used	to	support	the	thesisthat	mass	mobilisation	has	indeed	been	one	of	the	four	horsemen	of	levelling,	but	it	also	contributes	to	the	claim	thatpost-war	peaceful	levelling	of	a	similar	magnitude	would	not	have	been	possible	without	the	dramatic	events	ofconflict.	This	is	further	explained	through	the	reasoning	that	major	war	mobilisation	paved	the	way,	in	terms	ofincreased	taxation	and	expanded	fiscal	expenses,	for	the	subsequent	expansion	of	the	welfare	state	(the	example	ofthe	social	democratic	party	budget	proposals	of	1947-48	in	Sweden	is	highlighted	on	page	163).This	last	argument	leads	to	one	critique	that	can	be	directed	at	the	principal	thesis	of	the	book:	explaining	reductionsin	inequality	mainly	through	violent	levelling	episodes	does	not	leave	scope	for	the	positive	examples	of	autonomousand	peaceful	levelling	based	on	democratic	policymaking	that	history	has	also	shown	us.	A	recent	counterargumentto	Scheidel’s	thesis	comes,	for	instance,	from	Erik	Bengtsson	et	al	(2017),	which	demonstrates	that	inequalitydecreased	significantly	in	Finland	mainly	due	to	inclusive	growth	from	1850	to	1900	in	the	absence	of	both	disastersand	wars.	Another	example	of	falling	inequality	in	pre-war	peaceful	times	is	that	of	Norway	from	1892	to	1914,	asdocumented	by	Rolf	Aaberge	et	al	(2017).In	addition,	in	Chapter	Five,	Scheidel	admits	that	unionisation	has	indeed	been	a	peaceful	levelling	force	in	historyand,	more	precisely,	in	the	post-World	War	II	era.	However,	he	claims	that	‘war	mobilization	was	also	instrumental	inpromoting	labor	unionization’	(165),	adding	a	couple	of	examples	from	the	UK	and	the	USA.	I	regard	this	argumentas	lacking	a	broader	cross-country	justification,	as	unionisation	in	post-war	Denmark,	Sweden	and	Norway	has,	forinstance,	to	a	large	extent	been	deemed	endogenous	to	working	life	developments,	rather	than	depending	onexternal	factors	such	as	the	war,	as	documented	in	Francis	Sejerstad	(2011).LSE Review of Books: Book Review: The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century by WalterScheidelPage 2 of 3		Date originally posted: 2018-02-23Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2018/02/23/book-review-the-great-leveler-violence-and-the-history-of-inequality-from-the-stone-age-to-the-twenty-first-century-by-walter-scheidel/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/In	conclusion,	even	if	it	is	true	that	peaceful	levelling	has	been	an	exceedingly	rarer	phenomenon	than	violentlevelling	in	history,	this	is	not	in	itself	a	reason	to	claim	that	violent	levelling	is	unfortunately	the	unique	way	throughwhich	a	reduction	in	inequality	can	or	should	be	sought.	Even	gradual	reductions	in	income	and	wealth	inequalities,as	in	the	example	by	Bengtsson	et	al	for	Finland,	can	lead	to	decent	amounts	of	levelling	if	social	policies	aresustained	over	a	longer	timespan.	This	remark	on	the	role	of	‘benign	forces’	has	been	emphasised	recently	byanother	leading	inequality	scholar,	Milanovic,	who	claimed	in	his	book	Global	Inequality	that	‘awareness	of	thedestructive	nature	of	increasing	inequality	and	knowledge	of	the	benign	means	to	reduce	it	–	make	one	optimisticthat	a	peaceful	process	of	decreasing	global	inequality	could	be	managed	in	this	century’	(103).Overall,	Scheidel’s	book	can	without	doubt	be	deemed	a	key	contribution	to	the	interdisciplinary	field	of	inequalitystudies	in	the	economic	and	social	sciences,	with	its	overview	of	the	most	dramatic	episodes	of	income	levellingthroughout	the	centuries	and	across	the	globe.	More	importantly,	Scheidel	sapiently	knits	these	episodes	together	inorder	to	highlight	the	dominant	role	of	the	‘Four	Horsemen	of	levelling’.	It	is	now	up	to	scholars	in	the	field	ofeconomic	and	social	policy	to	highlight	alternative	paths	and	historical	interpretations	based	on	peaceful	levelling,	inorder	to	provide	policymakers	with	viable	policies	to	counteract	the	uncomfortable	thesis	that	‘violent’	levelling	hasbeen	and	will	remain	the	leading	force	of	inequality	reduction	in	our	societies.Roberto	Iacono	is	an	Associate	Professor	in	Economics	and	Social	Policy	at	the	Norwegian	University	of	Scienceand	Technology	(NTNU).	His	latest	research	is	at	the	intersection	between	Public	Economics,	Labor	Economics	andPolitical	Economy,	with	a	focus	on	policy-relevant	questions	related	to	the	«Nordic	model»	of	economic	developmentand	welfare.	Roberto	Iacono	is	also	a	coordinator	of	the	Young	Scholar	Initiative	(YSI)	working	group	on	PoliticalEconomy	of	Europe	of	the	Institute	for	New	Economic	Thinking	(INET).Note:	This	review	gives	the	views	of	the	author,	and	not	the	position	of	the	LSE	Review	of	Books	blog,	or	of	theLondon	School	of	Economics.LSE Review of Books: Book Review: The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century by WalterScheidelPage 3 of 3		Date originally posted: 2018-02-23Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2018/02/23/book-review-the-great-leveler-violence-and-the-history-of-inequality-from-the-stone-age-to-the-twenty-first-century-by-walter-scheidel/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/

Book review: the great leveler: violence and the history of inequality from the stone age to the twenty-first century by Walter Scheidel

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Book review: the great leveler: violence and the history of inequality from the stone age to the twenty-first century by Walter Scheidel

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