Cooperation among equals: Evolution and the role of egalitarian norms

Toby Handfield (Monash University)

Is egalitarianism desirable? Apart from any intuitive appeal it might have, does egalitarianism promote social outcomes that are desirable on independent grounds? Utilitarians, for instance, can usually give qualified support to egalitarianism on the basis that sharing resources equally will tend towards maximizing the aggregate utility. In this paper, I examine a similar sort of reason for egalitarianism that could be embraced by utilitarians, but which could have much broader appeal also. Egalitarian norms appear to play an important role in promoting cooperative behaviour. This link between egalitarianism and cooperation is derived from evolutionary theory. It is argued that models of cultural and genetic evolution give us some reason to think that manifestly desirable cooperative behaviours will be more stable in societies with egalitarian norms. The same models, however, have some apparently unattractive corollaries. The evolutionary mechanism for the promotion of cooperative outcomes within a group may require (i) destructive conflict, or at least hostility, between groups, and (ii) norms which not only entail relative uniformity of wealth and power, but which suppress all manner of diversity within groups. So egalitarianism may promote the evolutionary stability of cooperation, but at a cost.