The European

Elections, Politics
and Inequality
T
HROUGHOUT MOST OF our inch unravelled, what we come to see are
electronic exchanges we tackle the “huge unmet needs” confronting “vast
issue of the “self” as such, and its under-utilized resources” – idle workers
“production” as such, concentrating on and idle machines, cast out of service by
the features all selves and all cases of their chronically and systemically malfunc-
production share, and only occasionally tioning markets. Alongside unstoppably
mentioning their diversities. But “selves” rising inequality, also the fairness and the
come in many shapes and colours, and so sense of fair play (p.xlvii) fall collateral
Zygmunt Bauman do the settings, mechanisms, procedures victims to that inanity.
Emeritus Professor at of their production – and indeed the Victims of inequality are not only those
the University of Leeds very likelihood of their production being on the receiving side of economic, health,
and one of Europe’s
foremost sociologists.
undertaken, pursued and seen through by educational and social discrimination:
He is author of Liquid the “auctors” (authors and actors rolled as numerous social studies document, it
Modernity (Polity 2000) into one) presumed and expected to per- affects the quality of life of the society as
and many other books on form that task. Let me now try to survey, a whole. They show that the volume and
contemporary society
however briefly, the misleadingly even if intensity of most social pathologies cor-
inadvertently neglected other side of the relates with the degree of inequality (as
phenomenon which we attempted to dis- measured by the Gini coefficient) rather
sect and reconstruct in all its aspects. than with the average standard of liv-
I believe that an excellent point from ing as measured by income per head. As
which to start has been offered by Joseph Therborn puts it (p.21): “Inequality always
Stiglitz and Göran Therborn in their out- means excluding some people from
standing, trail-blazing and stage-setting something. To be poor means that you
contributions to the recently resurrected do not have sufficient resources to par-
and currently on-going public debate on ticipate (fully) in the everyday life of the
social inequality, its devastating impacts bulk of your fellow citizens”. For the poor
and the frailty of prospects of its cure or yet more than for those close above them,
even mitigation.1 The picture painted “the social space for human development
by Stiglitz is best conveyed by a concise, is carved up and restricted” (p.22).
but hologram-like statement: “We have Therborn accepts, as the most correct
empty homes and homeless people” of all on offer, Amartya Sen’s 1992 defini-
(p.xli) As the complex canvass is inch by tion2 of the norm which the state of ine-
quality violates: “Equality of capability to
function fully as a human being” – which
means the capability of exercising what
‘The volume and intensity of most a given society in a given time consid-
ered to be inalienable human rights. And
social pathologies correlates with he goes along with Martha Nussbaum3
pointing out that the rights which ine-
the degree of inequality’ quality violates, or for all practical intents

5 Social Europe Journal • Volume 8 • Issue 1 • Summer/Autumn 2014

 and purposes denies, entail – alongside opportunities for self-definition, self-
survival and health – also “freedom and assertion, indeed the chances and capa-
knowledge (education) to choose one’s bilities of self-production allotted and
life path, and resources to pursue it” available to individuals placed at different
(p.41). Obviously, we can add therefore to level of the wealth and income hierarchy.
that list of violated or denied rights the
right to self-production and the resource Inequality And The Middle Class
indispensable to pursuing it. Let’s be clear about it: the idea of self-
The ranks of those whose human rights production was the invention, battle-
so understood have in practice been seri- cry and practice of the middle classes
ously eroded or even downright expro- spreading between the upper classes who
priated are steadily rising; the number of needed nothing to do in order to main-
those who manage to escape unscathed tain their position a priori guaranteed by
the effects of market tremors and turbu- birth, and the lower classes which could
lences are steadily shrinking. To a case do pretty little to change their – also
study of those intertwined tendencies imposed by birth – position. “Middle
in operation Stiglitz dedicates a chapter classes” belonged to the only (but grow-
entitled “America’s 1 percent problem” (a ing and hoped to grow yet more) sec-
phrase picked up soon later by the “Wall- tor of society, to which the postulate of
Street Occupiers”). He found out that “meritocracy” (social rewards faithfully
the number of citizens who “managed to reflecting the value of individual offers)
hang on to a huge piece of the national was addressed and tested in practice. It
income” despite the credit crash was con- was widely expected that thanks to the
fined to but one percent of the US popula- entrenchment of the democratic mode
tion (p.2). Such a concentration of income of human coexistence the “middle class”
at the very top of economic hierarchy was would go on expanding at the expense of
not, however, a novelty brought about both, the top and the bottom, extremes
by the recent economic catastrophe. “By of social pyramid – and, so the postulate
2007, the year before the crisis, the top of meritocracy, would spawn equality of
0.1 percent of America’s households had opportunities for the whole of society –
an income that was 220 times larger than putting paid to class divisions and provid-
the average of the bottom 90 percent. ing an effective remedy for the conflicts
Wealth was even more unequally distrib- of class interests (remember the vision of
uted than income, with the wealthiest the on-going “embourgeoisement” of the
1 percent owning more than a third of working class, a hard-core element in the
the nation’s wealth”. Between 2002 and 1960s social-scientific commonsense?)
2007 “the top 1 percent seized more than Now, however, the middle classes are
65 percent of the gain in total national conspicuous primarily by the shrink-
income”, whereas “most Americans were ing of their ranks, of their trust in the
actually growing worse-off” (p.2-3). The increasingly vague and ethereal prom-
average pay of CEOs has become more ises of meritocratic creed, and of their
than 200 times greater than “that of a hopes. They watch, haplessly and help-
typical worker” (p.26). And all of these lessly, the capabilities of self-creation and
are, let’s note, statistical averages, failing self-assertion being levelled down, not
to expose fully the person-to-person dis- up, degrading them to the fixity of fate
tances and their growth. previously reserved for the lowest strata
One of the most salient and probably of social hierarchy. Guy Standing4 coined
the most seminal impacts of the impetu- the term “precariat” to denote the new
ous growth and the profound transfor- predicament and the emerging mode of
mation in the scale and dimensions of life and thought of the categories of peo-
inequality is the sharp differentiation ple not so long ago classified as members
of the degrees of human autonomy and of the “middle classes”. That term refers

6 Social Europe Journal • Volume 8 • Issue 1 • Summer/Autumn 2014

‘The middle classes are go on self-producing as they did before
though this time without the tools which
conspicuous primarily by the such production requires.
And so: goodbye to the dreams of mer-
shrinking of their ranks, of their itocracy; lasciate ogni speranza you, who
trust in the increasingly vague and enter a world in which, in Stiglitz’s sum-
mary, “we are not using one of our most
ethereal promises of meritocratic valuable assets – our people – in the most
productive way possible” (p.117). In other
creed, and of their hopes’ words, when the bulk of those entering
are booked to the debit, not to the credit
of that world. And when up to half of new
entrants are forced to accept jobs (in case
to the endemic precariousness (instabil- they are lucky to find any) much below
ity, fitfulness, capriciousness, shakiness, their ambitions, talents and skills, and
and all in all vulnerability) of existence: a offering little or no security, let alone a
condition which several dozens of years chance of self-assertion. And when they
ago were deemed to be a particular, class- watch a steadily growing number of their
defined bane of the “proletariat”. elders who seem to have thus far man-
Now the middle classes, in droves, are aged to compose respectable and grati-
pushed and pulled to savour the bitter fying selves but now in their fifties find
taste of the condition of which Lyndon their hard won and laboriously composed
Johnson, when launching his project of identities denied, their hard won and
the “Great Society” famously opined that a cherished position in society withdrawn,
man cast into it is not – and can’t be – free. and themselves relegated to the category
Whereas “not free” means, first and fore- of redundant and social liabilities. And let
most: stripped of capability to self-create, us recall that the selection of an “lasciate
to choose, to shape up, and to control ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate” inscription
one’s mode of life. We are all, or mostly, to be engraved on its entry gate Dante
middle class now: but not the sort of mid- chose for the trademark of hell.
dle class which Abbé Sieyès had in mind
when almost two and a half centuries ago What We Can Learn From The
he boisterously and proudly declared the European Parliament Elections?
“third estate” to “be everything”. We can much learn about the probable
“The prospects of a good education outcomes of that profound change from
for the children of poor and middle- the results of the recent elections to the
income families” (Stiglitz, p.118) are “far European Parliament. Those elections,
bleaker than those of the children of unlike the elections to national parlia-
the rich”. “Parental income is becoming ments, are believed to have little if any
increasingly important, as college tui- practical impact on the conditions under
tion increases far faster than incomes…” which the electors expect to conduct their
(ibid.). “As those in the middle and at life struggles in the foreseeable, let alone
the bottom struggle to make a living… a more distant future. They serve the
families have to make compromises, and electors instead as a sort of safety valve:
among them is less investment in their occassions to let off the explosion-prone
children” (p.119). In other words, just as excess of steam, to vent off the blood-poi-
in the case of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, soning grievances and get rid for a time of
who were told to go on producing as potentially toxic emotions – and all that
many bricks as before though without into a relatively safe, because inocuous
the straw until now supplied by the phar- and inconsequential, direction. The most
aoh’s agents, the offspring of the mid- salient mark of the last European parlia-
dle- and low-income families are told to mentary elections was an unprecedented

7 Social Europe Journal • Volume 8 • Issue 1 • Summer/Autumn 2014

 proportion of electors deploying that directed against any particular section
occasion in full and coming to the poll- of the extant political spectrum – but at
ing booths for no other purpose except politics in its present shape, usurped as it
shouting “Woe!”, “Good Heavens!” – and is – or is widely believed to be – the elites
“Help!”: such pleas having been notably increasingly aloof and distant from the
deprived of a specific address defined in problems which occupy most of the time
currently established political terms. As and absorb most of the energy of “ordi-
Timothy Garton Ash summed it up in a nary people”. That politics as a whole is
recent issue of The Guardian:5 seen by many as nearing bankruptcy – no
longer able to assure the regular supply of
So what were Europeans telling their leaders? straw needed to make the bricks.
The general message was perfectly summed Neal Lawson, the head of “Compass”
up by the cartoonist Chappatte, who drew (an organization introducing itself on its
a group of protesters holding up a placard web page as “building a Good Society; one
shouting “Unhappy” – and one of their num- that is much more equal, sustainable and
ber shouting through a megaphone into the democratic than the society we are living
ballot box. There are 28 member states and in now”)6, and one of the most insightful
28 varieties of Unhappy. Some of the suc- and inventive minds on the British politi-
cessful protest parties really are on the far- cal stage, interprets the results of the
right: in Hungary, for example, Jobbik got European elections as a loud call to vin-
three seats and more than 14% of the vote. dicate the citizens right to a “citizen-led
Most, like Britain’s victorious Ukip, draw politics of everyday democracy, not just a
voters from right and left, feeding on senti- vote once every five years”. “The election
ments such as “we want our country back” result”, he suggests
and “too many foreigners, too few jobs”. But
in Greece, the big protest vote went to the makes the case for a new politics over-
leftwing, anti-austerity Syriza. whelming. The future can neither be denied
nor avoided. The world is changing – we
This is why I believe the lessons of either bend it to us, to build a good society,
these elections to be especially illumi- or we will be forced to bend to it. Which way
nating for the theme of our conversa- it goes depends on our ability to change and
tion. Unhappiness was indeed, it seems, on how good we are at politics – our wit,
what prompted citizens of Europe to vote wisdom, insight, good faith and persever-
(note that for the first time in EU history ance. Now more than ever, we cannot say
the number of voters did not fall), even we weren’t warned.
if the assumed/putative culprits of their
unhappiness differed from one country to To what he adds words of encourage-
another. For all one can guess, few of the ment: “at the very time the old politics
people coming to express their unhapi- is disintegrating, new ways of being and
ness and vent in public their wrath trusted doing are opening up that give us hope.”
any of the people on the list of candidates
to be able to alleviate their misery and any The Expropriation Of Politics
of the competing programmes on sanita- If there was a common denominator to
tion to be effective. What moved a great the unhappiness manifested by the oth-
number of the electors was rather a “frus- erwise starkly disparate categories of
tration fatigue”, the dashing of hopes Europeans, it was – or so at least it seems
that (as Peter Drucker warned already a to me – by the practical, if not explicit,
few decades ago) the salvation promised, expropriation of politics from the citizens
but not coming “from on high”. The pro- whom it was meant and designed to serve.
test against the direction in which things But, as Abraham Lincoln proposed and
are currently going, the most vocifer- insisted a long time ago, no man is good
ous message of these elections, was not enough to govern another man without

8 Social Europe Journal • Volume 8 • Issue 1 • Summer/Autumn 2014

 the other’s consent. Self-production, combined with generative personality are
self-composition and self-assertion are capable of multiplying the material and
not only some among many inalienable spiritual affluence of the human world,
human rights, but also the building blocks and with it – and thanks to it – also the
of the “citizen-led everyday democracy” meaningfulness and moral quality of
which Lawson had in mind. human existence and coexistence. Such
Mauro Magatti and Chiara Giaccardi, combination, if we succeed in the effort
professors of the Università Cattolica del to substitute it for the present-day mode
Sacro Cuore in Milan, several weeks ago of self-creation and self-assertion based
published a fundamental study under as they are on rivalry instead of collabo-
a challenging title Generativi di tutto del ration, has a chance of preventing the
mondo unitevi!7. The subtitle defines their demotion of humanity to the level of a
oeuvre as a “Manifesto of a society of free- zero-sum game. Freedom of individual
dom”. In the centre of the authors’ atten- self-definition united with the practice of
tion are (to express it in my own idiom) “excorporation” is a warrant of growing
the chances and the prospects of the “re- richness and diversity of human poten-
subjectification of work”, or of restora- tial – but also of enhancing the space for
tion to workers the status of subjects (or all of us and each of us self-definition and
of “auctors” – personal unions of authors self-constitution. Solidarity of fate and
and actors) of which they were expropri- endeavours derived from and supported
ated in the course of modern history. It is by generativity won’t stand in opposi-
in order to denominate the product of the tion to the purpose of individual self-
reunification of actor’s and author’s roles, assertion; quite on the contrary, it would
that Magatto and Giaccardi coined a new become its best – the most loyal and reli-
concept of “generativo”. The semantic gist able – ally. Such solidarity is, in fact, a
of that concept is perhaps best conveyed necessary condition and best warrant of
in English as “creative individual”. its success.
Magatti and Giaccardi neither suggest
pushing back the clock of history nor This essay is from the forthcoming book
Self-production of Self, in conversation with
demand retreat from the modern indi- Professor Rein Raud of Tallinn University,
vidualization that alongside introducing to be published by Polity Press.
new threats to the self opens after all new
horizons for individual contributions to
the material and spiritual wealth of the Endnotes
human Lebenswelt. To act generatively, 1 See Joseph E. Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality,
Penguin Books 2013, and Göran Therborn, The
they write, means to decide the value and Killing Fields of Inequality, Polity Press 2013.
to make it flesh. That value is precisely
the enrichment of the world we share, 2 In Inequality Reexamined, Harvard Up, chap.3.
not its impoverishment, as in the hunt- 3 See her Creating Capabilities,
er’s style, privatized utopia. The logic of The Belknap Press 2011
“generativity” is at cross-purposes with 4 See his Precariat: The New Dangerous
the logic of consumerism. It is not guided Class, Bloomsbury 2014.
by the will of “incorporation” (that is,
5 http://www.theguardian.com/
appropriation of things and withdrawing commentisfree/2014/may/26/
them by the same token from circulation europe-unhappy-european-union
and shared use and enjoyment), but by
6 See http://www.compassonline.org.uk/about/
the intention and practice of “excorpora-
tion”: “Generativity is a mode of life the 7 Feltrinelli 2014.
purpose of which is assisting others in
their being, care of their life and volume
of their life resources”.
Freedom of individual self-assertion

9 Social Europe Journal • Volume 8 • Issue 1 • Summer/Autumn 2014

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