Hey folks, great to be visiting again. I work on anti-corruption stuff — fitting, through the end of this Supreme Court term, for a law school located in Virginia. And I’ve got a couple specific arguments I’m going to try on you this month. By way of context: much of the international anti-corruption project involves jarring loose assumptions about the inevitability of corruption. Now, that’s much different than saying that there are places in the world where corruption is “cultural.” I have never encountered a culture which teaches that a suitcase full of cash, exchanged under the table for an illegal benefit, is an affirmatively good thing, such that efforts to limit it should be opposed. Nobody — and I do mean nobody — holds this belief (except those benefitting from it). The culture-based debates concern specific forms of more marginal corruption — gift-giving, nepotism, campaign finance (!), etc. But corruption, at its core, is universally regarded as a bad thing. What varies among cultures is the degree of resignation to it — the degree to which anyone believes that you could actually reduce it.
I think the perfect metaphor for the way many across the developing world view corruption is, um, a bit off-color, so please forgive the following foray into vulgarity. Corruption is perceived much in the way that all of us view what I will politely call using the toilet. Sure, it’s dirty and disease-ridden, and societies will take various efforts to contain and mask it. But if an intelligent being from another planet tried to convince us that various changes to our lifestyle could eliminate the production of solid waste, we wouldn’t give him or her (or it, I suppose) the time of day. That’s not to say that we’re fond of it. We just can’t imagine life otherwise. It’s inherent in being human.
Okay, says the cynic, point to one country where corruption was once endemic but has adopted meaningful anti-corruption reforms. Well, we can do that very thing, and the answer will surprise you: Brazil. What, you say? You thought Brazil was a mess. Nope, that’s the media manipulating your brain. I’ll explain, over the course of this month.
Posted by Andy Spalding on May 3, 2016 at 09:34 AM
Comments
hi Andy, I look forward to your thoughts–I’ve been teaching law in Beirut for 6 years, and witnessed a lot of discussion and efforts to combat corruption here. Mainly in govt, but also business and the universities here. Lebanon is unfortunately fairly corrupt–everyone knows this, and I agree with you, no one likes it or accepts it willingly. But there is only so much individuals can do to fight it. Yesterday Beirut held its municipal elections and an electoral list meant to fight corruption in govt (Beirut Madinati) lost badly at the polls, and this after a serious garbage crisis this past year in which trash was literally piling up in the streets. So your toilet analogy is apt. The Lebanese (at least the ones I talk to) are very dispirited by this but unfortunately they haven’t been able to change things due to the entrenched and religiously sectarian political system. Lebanon has a huge diaspora, and the best and brightest often leave–lack of opportunities here, caused in part by corruption, spur this on. The country is a fascinating case study–many people fighting against corruption but so far not able to get over the hurdles to changing the system.
Posted by: Steve | May 9, 2016 11:15:01 AM