Understanding the predicament of egalitarian politics today thus requires a reconsideration of homo economicus, the unremittingly selfish prototype whose asocial propensities have provided the starting point for deliberations on constitutions and policies from Thomas Hobbes to the current debate on welfare reform. However the welfare state is in trouble not because selfishness is rampant. In experiments and surveys people are not stingy, but their generosity is conditional. Strong reciprocity and basic needs generosity better explain the motivations that undergird egalitarian politics than does unconditional altruism. We call a person who acts this way homo reciprocans.