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Published on: May 8, 2021
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Inequality in nature and society
Marten Scheffer1, Bas van Bavel2, Ingrid A van de Leemput3
1Environmental Science Department, Wageningen University, 6700 HB Wageningen, The Netherlands Marten.Scheffer@wur.nl.
Summary
Chance alone drives inequality, with 1% dominating 50% of resources in multiplicative systems. Natural enemies and wealth-equalizing institutions counteract this, but global upscaling may require global solutions.
Area of Science:
- Ecology and Social Sciences
- Inequality Studies
- Complex Systems
Background:
- Economic systems often show dominance by a small elite.
- Natural ecological communities also exhibit dominance by a few species.
- These parallel patterns suggest underlying unifying mechanisms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the similarity between inequality patterns in natural and social systems.
- To identify the fundamental mechanisms driving resource concentration.
- To explore factors that counteract hyperdominance and their effectiveness over time.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of resource distribution patterns in both natural communities and human societies.
- Modeling of multiplicative gains and losses to simulate resource accumulation.
- Historical analysis of European societal developments over the past millennium.
Main Results:
- Chance alone can lead to 1% of a community dominating 50% of resources in multiplicative scenarios.
- Natural enemies (ecology) and wealth-equalizing institutions (society) are key counteracting mechanisms.
- Historical data indicates institutions become less effective during societal upscaling.
Conclusions:
- A fundamental similarity exists in inequality dynamics across ecological and economic systems.
- Without effective global wealth-equalizing institutions, globalization may exacerbate wealth concentration.
- Understanding these unifying mechanisms is crucial for addressing inequality in diverse contexts.
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