Carrot and Stick

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Carrot and stick is a phrase that describes influencing other people that works with reward and punishment at the same time.

Uses of terms

The linguistic twin formula is not documented before the 19th century; Wanders German Proverbs Lexicon lists the first evidence for "carrot and stick" from 1873 and only for "carrot" in 1872 in the sense of a reward aimed at changing behavior in Silesian newspapers. In addition, the MP Count Bethusy-Huc used it in a session of the Prussian House of Representatives on February 9, 1877.

The talk of "carrot and stick" used, as Franz Mehring handed down at the end of the 19th century, the social democratic journalism against the social legislation of Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck with leaflets like: "We despise his carrot, we break his stick." Political function of this It was therefore “carrots” to bind the workers to the monarchical-authoritarian state and at the same time to suppress the social-democratic movement with the “stick” of socialist laws . According to Manfred G. Schmidt , Bismarck himself had already used this formula in 1878. This characterization of Bismarck's social legislation was taken up many times, including by historians, and is still widespread today.

In 1930 Kurt Tucholsky wrote a poem under his pseudonym Theobald Tiger in Die Weltbühne , in which he addressed the hopelessness of bourgeois flight from the world.

Related concepts

The concept of working with reward and punishment at the same time is common in similar phrases in other languages. In ancient Latin there is a juxtaposition of stone and bread. In the comedy Aulularia des Plautus , for example, the suspicious Euclio, who has found a treasure and is then asked by the wealthy Megadorus for his daughter's hand: "Altera manu fert lapidem, panem ostentat altera." ("He holds in one hand One stone, and he shows bread with the other. ”The Church Father Hieronymus referred to this when he wrote to a recipient of a letter that he did not want to“ hold a stone in one hand and offer bread with the other ”.

In a long tradition of upbringing with wages and punishment, there is also the custom of Nikolaus von Myra , who accordingly visits children on December 6th and either rewards or punishes them, often accompanied by the punishing servant Ruprecht . In 1995 , for example, the historian Silke Lesemann described Nikolaus as a “Janus-headed figure” representing a “combination of carrot and stick”; In 1985, the educationalist Manfred Hofer saw the "duality of wages and punishment in education" "symbolized in the figure of Nicholas". The early New High German equivalent of the phrase is “rod and apple”, which Martin Luther similarly summarized in 1537 in his interpretation of Ephesians 6: 1-4 EU , which deals with child obedience: One should “punish children and pupils, that the apple is always next to the rod. "

The view is often held that the sociopolitical principle of promoting and demanding is only a euphemistic description of the same issue.

Web links

Wiktionary: carrot and stick  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: carrot  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wander (ed.): German Sprichwort Lexikon. Volume 5. Leipzig 1880, Col. 615 (E-Text). There are, however, earlier mentions, see for example The Lovers' Theater. In: Abend-Zeitung. Leipzig, Saturday, January 18, 1823, p. 61.
  2. ^ Nils Freytag: On the status of Bismarck research. In: ders., Dominik Petzold (Ed.): The “long” 19th century. Old questions and new perspectives (= Munich contact study history. Volume 10). Herbert Utz, Munich 2007, pp. 145–164, here p. 153.
  3. ^ Manfred G. Schmidt: Social policy in Germany. Historical development and international comparison. 3rd, completely revised and expanded edition. VS, Wiesbaden 2005, p. 28.
  4. ↑ Florian Tennstedt : "Bismarck's Workers Insurance" between safeguarding the workers 'existence and defending against the workers' movement. Note on the prerequisites for their creation. In: Ulrich Lappenkühler (Ed.): Otto von Bismarck and the "long 19th century". Living past as reflected in the "Friedrichsruher Contributions" 1996–2016. Schöningh, Paderborn 2017, pp. 353-375, here p. 373.
  5. ^ Die Weltbühne, December 9, 1930, No. 50, p. 872, reprinted in: Kurt Tucholsky: Gesammelte Werke in ten volumes. Volume 10. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1975, E-Text.
  6. ^ Annette Pohlke, Reinhard Pohlke: All roads lead to Rome. German idioms from Latin. Artemis & Winkler, Zurich 2001, p. 174.
  7. ^ Heinrich Kaak: Discussion report. In: Jan Peters (Ed.): Manorial societies in European comparison. Akademie, Berlin 1997, pp. 485-541, here p. 499. See also Dieter E. Zimmer : A sack full of misunderstandings. In: Die Zeit , December 24, 1993; Christian Freitag: Expectation and sanction in nursery rhyme with special consideration of behavior control through punishment and threat of punishment. Dissertation, University of Marburg, 1974, especially p. 74.
  8. ↑ Manfred Hofer: On the effects of praise and blame. In: Education and Upbringing. Volume 38, 1985, pp. 415-427, here p. 416, urn : nbn: de: 0111-opus-3833 .
  9. ↑ Oskar Reichmann (arrangement): apple, der. In: Robert R. Anderson, Ulrich Goebel, Oskar Reichmann (Eds.): Early New High German Dictionary. Volume 1. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1989, col. 1628. There is also another place in Luther from 1536 given, in which "Ruth and apple" is mentioned.
  10. ↑ Martin Luther: D. Martin Luther's interpretation of the epistle. Volume 3: The Letters to the Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. Ed. By Eduard Ellwein . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1973, p. 117 f. , Quotation p. 118.
  11. ↑ See for example Kai Schöneberg: Carrot & Stick in Prison. In: Die Tageszeitung , July 3, 2004; Reinhard Kowalewsky: Dispute over integration paper of the CDU: With carrot and stick. In: Rheinische Post , February 14, 2016.