High Stakes Distributional Issues

3. Factors That Make Conflict Intractable

Distributional conflicts are conflicts over who gets what and how much they get. The item to be distributed is usually tangible -- money, land, better houses, better schools, or better jobs, for example. But the item to be distributed can be intangible as well, such as admiration or power. Of course, those intangible elements are not necessarily limited: many people can be held in high esteem, and power, if seen to be "power-with" or "power-to," rather than "power-over," does not need to be win-lose either. But often it is seen to be a "zero-sum" commodity — meaning the more prestige or power my adversaries are seen to have, the less I feel I have or can get. When the contested attribute or good is very important or valuable, these conflicts can become very intractable.

Consider, for instance, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. This is about land; it is also about identity, recognition, and security (and, of course many other things). But all that we mentioned are extremely important, and are erroneously seen as zero sum. (I say "erroneously," because human needs such as identity, security, and recognition are not really zero sum. The more one side has, the more the other side has. Tragically, though neither side seems to recognize this, and they have been fighting over (and unwilling to share) power to the region since 1948, and in many senses, far longer than that.

Inequality in the United States (and elsewhere too) of course is another high-stakes distributional conflict. That is one of the key factors--perhaps the key factor--that scholars and pundits seem to think explains why Donald Trump was elected President in 2016 and again in 2020. It now is driving the very divisive fights over taxes and government spending, immigration, trade, and many other issues. Similar conflicts are raging in Europe. It was high-stakes distributional conflicts that drove Brexit; it is driving the rise of far-right parties in many other countries, and it is one of several factors (identity being another key one) that is threatening the European Union itself.