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In 'The Origins and Dynamics of Inequality', Jon Wisman provides a re-interpretation of economic history and society. He argues that the struggle over income, wealth, and inequality has been the principal, defining issue in human history and provides a novel framework for understanding inequality today.

AbstractThorstein Veblen was a pioneer in recognizing the necessity of grounding social science in Darwinian biology and exploring how evolving institutions channel biological proclivities. He especially focused upon how capitalism's social institutions guided the innate need for social status into conspicuous consumption. But why do humans seek status? Surprisingly, Veblen did not pick up on Darwin's concept of sexual selection and recognize it as the driving force behind behavior intended to favorably impress others. This article adds the Darwinian depth that Veblen missed to his understanding of the biologically driven quest for status and its channeling by social institutions. It then explores the turn of most institutionalists away from Veblen's focus on innate behavioral drives in favor of viewing human behavior as more exclusively determined by social conditions. It concludes with reflections on the implications of sexual selection and biological grounding more generally for a theory of institutional economics.

Critics of economies in which institutions are structured to elicit cooperation typically predict their demise, & cite the failure of state socialism as conclusive evidence. Yet while the so-called success of capitalism appears to demonstrate that economic competition is essential to sustainable, dynamic economics, the success has not unequivocally established that all relationships need be competitive to be efficient, or that institutions that draw upon cooperation are condemned to fail. In fact, analyses from a broad spectrum of modern science suggest that optimal social institutions draw upon the human proclivity both to compete & to cooperate. I present perspectives from biology, social bio1ogy, evolutionary biology, political science, & anthropology, & propose an appropriate balance between competition & cooperation within institutional structures, especially within workplace structures, since work is so central to everyday life. Adapted from the source document.