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Research Journal of the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka- Rohana 11, 2019

As defined by social theorists and political scientists, relative deprivation theory
suggests that people are likely to feel a sense of deprivation if they think they are

being denied something considered essential in their society, such as for example

money, rights, political voice, status etc. when compared to some reference group or
person that is enjoying those benefits. However, it is recognized that a simple

feeling of deprivation is not considered significant even if someone is frustrated
about something. Frustration based feelings acquire significance only when a person

or group compares its own situation with that of another reference group. Walter

Runciman listed four necessary conditions if people are to sense a feeling of relative
deprivation:

• A person does not have something.

• This person knows other people who have that thing.

• This person also wants to have that thing.

• This person believes they have a reasonable chance of getting the thing.

(Runciman, 1966)

Some researchers have argued that relative deprivation mainly existed in two forms,

namely as individual-based relative deprivation (IRD) and group-based relative
deprivation (GRD) (Osborne et al., 2015). Accordingly, when a person suffers some

sort of deprivation relative to other individuals, that kind of deprivation is known as

IRD. In contrast, when a person feels his group is deprived relative to other groups
that can be identified as GRD. Presence of IRD and GRD can result in four

categories of people who experience relative deprivation. They are (i) people who
suffer high IRD and high GRD (i.e., ‘doubly deprived’), (ii) people who suffer high

IRD and low GRD, (iii) people who suffer low IRD and high GRD, (iv) people who
suffer low IRD and low GRD (Osborne et al., 2015; Runciman, 1966; Foster &

Matheson, 1995).

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