Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/200108 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 365
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
The word “scapegoat” is defined as “a person made to bear the blame for others,” and similarly, “scapegoatism” refers to “the act or practice of assigning blame or failure to another, as to deflect attention or responsibility away from oneself” (Collins English Dictionary and Dictionary.com, respectively.) While these definitions do not mention economics specifically, in most cases the blame on the scapegoat is economic in nature. Scapegoatism also provides a convenient, though extremely inferior, substitute for valid analyses of economic problems. Scapegoatism, however, has a partner, dehumanization, which is the process of demonizing certain people as less than human and unworthy of humane treatment. Scapegoatism is not only accompanied by dehumanization, but it is often motivated by it. Thus, “scapegoatism” is a euphemism and it is understudied as a result, because there is no single term of art that combines scapegoatism and dehumanization. This paper offers a solution to this semantic dilemma by proposing the new term, “HATEGOATISM,” for the simultaneous existence of scapegoatism and dehumanization. Only one subfield of economics regularly embraces hategoatism, which is Libertarianism (where the “HATEGOAT” is government workers). Economists must lead by example by combating hategoatism, and that requires cleaning their own house first.
Subjects: 
scapegoat
Libertarianism
hate
discrimination
prejudice
government
ethics
economics
labor
blame
fairness
responsibility
economists
demonization
dehumanization
JEL: 
B25
B53
D72
D73
H11
H12
I18
I28
I38
J16
J17
J45
J71
P16
P17
Z13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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