Prizes and Awards, International

Awards Are Ubiquitous

It is well known that a flood of orders, medals, and titles (such as “Hero of the Soviet Union” or “Hero of Socialist Labour”) were handed out in communist countries, for instance, in the Soviet Union or the German Democratic Republic. Such behavior is typical for both right- and left-wing dictatorships. But awards also play a large role in republics and democracies. Awards are equally ubiquitous in monarchies as in staunch republics. In the French Republic, for instance, the légion d'honneur plays an important role, and that nation actually confers 3,000 awards annually, which is four times higher than Britain. In the United States, the president and Congress bestow medals, while Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, and Silver Stars are handed out liberally and at an increasing rate in the military service.

The shorter the time horizon of the politicians, the more they rely on awards because the costs, in the form of award inflation, will only occur in the future. Before his resignation in 1976, the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, did great harm to the honors system by handing out a large number of awards to Labour supporters. When a regime fears for its survival, there is a great incentive to try to forestall this fate by using awards as incentives to supporters. Examples are the German Iron Cross, established in 1813, and highly esteemed up until the 20th century. But it lost much of its luster when it was given out to 5.4 million soldiers in World War I, in which 13.2 million German soldiers were engaged; on average, 40% of all soldiers received one. As some soldiers received Iron Crosses of several classes, historians estimate that approximately 20% of German soldiers were decorated in this way. Similarly, in World War II, 5 million Iron Crosses were awarded. In both wars, the Germans were on the losing side. The war leaders were, early on, aware of the fact that their chance of winning the war was small and diminishing.

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