In Between The Lines: Do You Trust Politicians?
In Uplift and Empower, I wrote about corruption as such, “Throughout history, rulers have changed, laws have changed, and citizens themselves have changed. Corruption has remained. Greed and self-interest have always been around and will continue to play a role in human interactions.” However, this statement doesn’t capture the nuances of the relationship between the ever-present force of corruption and the persistence of poverty over time. Beyond corruption, a lack of accountability and punishment for corrupt behavior are core pieces of the puzzle. In this article, I share information on corruption and its relation to self-interest, accountability, incentives, and trust.
People have been discussing ways to combat corruption for years, and yet it persists. Why? Corrupt behavior is rooted in pursuing your self-interest, but that behavior is not always a bad thing. For example, in economics, “rational behavior” is defined as behaving in a way that aligns with your self-interest. Extreme poverty is still a global problem because self-interest is a stronger motivator than benevolence. If corruption is rooted in something as fundamental to individuals as self-interest, how can it ever be stopped? In Uplift and Empower, I clarify the difference between eradicating extreme poverty and eradicating all poverty. I even explained the difference again in my first blog post on UpliftandEmpower.com (quoted below):
“It’s important to differentiate between eradicating extreme poverty and alleviating poverty in general. Extreme poverty is defined by the World Bank as living on less than US$1.90 per day. I write a lot about relative poverty versus absolute poverty in Chapter Three of Uplift and Empower. It’s the reason why I can confidently say things like, “I think eradicating extreme poverty is possible” but still believe that poverty will always exist. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines poverty as “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.” What is or is not considered a socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions will always shift and change over time. So, poverty, in some form, will always exist.”
In the same way, our expectations for eradicating corruption need to be adjusted. Eradicating all corruption would likely be dependent on our shifting social standards over time. The constant changes make it hard to defeat it. What is considered corrupt in one decade (or one country, or one state, or one city) could be accepted as the norm in another as our values and cultures change. In contrast, eradicating extreme corruption (for lack of a better term) would require holding ourselves, and our politicians, accountable for negligence and greed. However, accountability is not enough. It would require consequences that discourage corrupt behavior. The prosecution would need to result in punishments that outweigh the benefits of the crimes and discourage corrupt behavior in the first place. Fragile systems of accountability and consequences, high levels of corruption, and extreme poverty often go hand-in-hand.
Why do we need to hold ourselves accountable too? Because precisely defining corruption, and its consequences, will require taking a closer look at what incentivizes our self-interested behavior in general. Be honest with yourself for a moment here. Is it in your best interest to donate substantial amounts of your yearly salary to people living in extreme poverty? Depending on the number of bills, debt, children, and other financial responsibilities you have, likely not. Hence, we face the dilemma outlined by Yuval Noah Harari in his bestselling novel, Sapiens, “Ever since the French Revolution, people throughout the world have gradually come to see both equality and individual freedom as fundamental values. Yet the two values contradict each other. Equality can be ensured only by curtailing the freedoms of those who are better off.” (P. 183)
Who is willing to “curtail their freedoms” to help balance the global scales? Are you?
Ideally, our public servants—our politicians—must be up to the task, right? Not necessarily. As James Payne wrote in Overcoming Welfare, “Government officials are not gods with superior mental powers, capable of discerning solutions that evade the rest of us. [The] government is made up of ordinary people who are just as confused and misinformed as the rest of us can be.” With this in mind, why do we seem to impose high moral expectations on politicians when they are human—and fallible—just like us? In 2012, Katherine A. DeCelles, a professor in the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, experimented to understand whether power influences our morals. She sought out an answer to the question: what makes one politician corrupt whereas another one, in the same position, behaves honestly? She concluded,
Essentially, being in a position of power doesn’t transform a person into a morally superior individual, their pre-existing characteristics increase. So, I ask again, are you willing to “curtail [your] freedoms” to help balance the global scales? Do you expect your answer to be different from your, equally human, political leaders? Ultimately, we all face temptations, hardships, and challenges throughout life. Part of combating corruption means recognizing that no one—regardless of their socioeconomic status—is beyond corrupt behavior and creating regulations, along with systems of accountability, that reflect this. If there are too few rules to combat corruption, and no one gets punished for being corrupt, what incentive is there to stop the behavior?
Let’s consider the big picture, and think about the role corruption plays on a global stage. Given the nature of corruption, it’s hard to track with total accuracy because many of the actions are secret. However, as of 2018, the World Economic Forum estimates that the global cost of corruption is “at least $2.6 trillion, or 5 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP).” Beyond that, “according to the World Bank, businesses and individuals pay more than $1 trillion in bribes every year.”For people living in poverty, the bribes and gifts paid to corrupt police officers, government officials, judges, and other individuals in positions of authority are a larger component of their income. The bribes make it even harder for them to meet their daily needs.
In my search for more information about corruption, I noticed a primary focus on corrupt actions and less detail regarding the stakeholders who are complicit in the behavior externally. As Distinguished Professor & Director at UMass-Amherst Leonce Ndikumana wrote in his 2006 research paper, “Corruption and Pro-Poor Growth Outcomes: Evidence and Lessons for African Countries”:
“The national and international initiatives to fight corruption in African countries must pay serious attention to international corruption involving government officials and their cronies in multinational companies as well as their western bankers. Embezzlement of revenues from natural resources and the smuggling of borrowed money and aid through capital flight continue to enrich national elites while impoverishing the large majority of the population. Curbing such forms of corruption will require enforcement of transparency in international business and banking practices, which necessitates cooperation between African countries and their western counterparts.”
In the future, I hope to learn more about the systems that inadvertently leave space for corruption and inspire more open conversations about the individuals, businesses, and institutions involved in corruption. For example, where are embezzled funds primarily held? What banks and bankers are complicit in enabling or turning a blind eye in exchange for a piece of the pie? Where do corrupt politicians take solace when caught? What merchants accept the business of corrupt individuals when they buy cars, homes, land, designer goods, and more? What systems are in place to more stringently track sources of funds, especially among individuals with more opportunities to corruptly obtain funds?
How can we make substantive strides toward poverty eradication when corruption slows down global progress? Corruption impacts governments’ ability to improve infrastructure, public resources, and more. To create successful poverty alleviation initiatives and programs, successful anti-corruption action needs to occur as well.
Many researchers, organizations, and think tanks have proposed solutions to corruption. For example, Shandong University researchers Joseph Eshun & Justice Ackom Baah published a paper in 2020 titled, “What Does Recent Survey Data Say About the Effect of Corruption on Poverty in Africa?” that explored how corruption and poverty intersect. Concerning solutions, the researchers highlighted democratic governments, increasing citizens’ trust in public institutions, supporting governments financially and otherwise to apply the rule of law, and empowering individuals to fight corruption as core methods.
In 2006, the Council of Europe concluded in their report on poverty and the fight against corruption, “To be effective, anti-corruption measures must not be unilateral and must cater for a country’s specific structure and characteristics, taking into account the nature and scope of the corruption in question.” The report also included 17 detailed steps regarding how to combat corruption and highlighted the importance of decentralizing the public sector.
International Finance Corporation Economist, Djeneba Doumbia, shared her thoughts in a July 2020 article for the Brookings Institute where she highlighted the importance of 1) integrity in the public sector and transparency in the government 2) Audit systems for accountability 3) Improved information transfer to combat illicit cross-border transactions, and 4) information communication technologies (ICT) to maintain the policies.
These solutions don’t even scratch the surface of the writings, research, committees, organizations, and departments all created to combat corruption globally.
In Uplift and Empower, I wrote about the importance of inclusive government institutions maintaining the rule of law and property rights while also combating corruption. Toward the end of the chapter, I concluded,
“The country you live in impacts nearly every aspect of your life. From the factors I have observed, this impact can be broadly categorized into opportunities and trust. In Richland, individuals’ lives are replete with opportunity and there is little reason not to trust the institutions in their lives, yet not everything is as perfect as it seems on a mental, emotional, and cultural level. In Poorland, the daily fight for survival takes precedence over most other elements of life and trust levels are low. Even the ground a person lives on can be taken away at a moment’s notice with little opportunity or basis for defense.”
(If you’d like to learn more about Richland and Poorland, you can read Uplift and Empower for context.)
Trust is a crucial component of combating corruption. To eliminate extreme cases of corruption and its harmful effects on low-income populations, these three core questions remain:
How do you build trust?
How do you maintain trust?
How do you encourage people to be more trustworthy?
These open-ended inquiries will require more time and reflection on how trust influences—not only corruption—but human interaction in general.
Corruption is a complex and weighty topic that intersects with morality, psychology, economics, and more. To truly combat it will require clarifying our expectations, holding individuals and institutions accountable, and creating consequences that outweigh the benefits of corrupt behavior. And yes, it also involves being willing to trust our politicians to do what they say they will do (but, to be fair, no more than we would do ourselves).
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This article series, In Between The Lines, is an exploration of some of the topics and ideas I didn’t cover in my first book, Uplift and Empower: A Guide To Understanding Extreme Poverty and Poverty Alleviation. Sign up for the Uplift and Empower newsletter to get new articles sent straight to your email inbox.
Uplift and Empower was published on August 15, here is the link to buy it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1641379243/! (The book is also available for sale at BN.com, Kobo, Walmart, and other distributors worldwide. Check UpliftandEmpower.com for more options.)
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