Political Economy of Permanent Grievance

Grievance has evolved from a signal of injustice into a capitalised political asset—one that can be invested, leveraged, and monetised.

Permanent grievance describes a condition where grievance claims are structurally insulated from empirical updating, institutional resolution, or legitimacy decay. The grievance persists not because the underlying wrong persists, but because resolution would destroy accumulated political and economic value.

This creates perverse incentives: those with grievance-based authority benefit from grievance persistence rather than grievance resolution. They become investors in a asset whose value depends on the problem never being solved.

Understanding grievance as political capital—not just moral claim—reveals why some grievances never decay and why well-intentioned interventions often fail.