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Science Forum Index » Anthropology Forum » Corruption and Culture
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 Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:35 pm |
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Corruption and Culture
by Luis O. Gallardo Rivera
The February 2nd issue of the Economist featured a story on Mexico's
drug war and its government's difficulty in tackling the problem.
Mention is made of an initiative from Mexico's Congress that would
convert the "country's legal arrangements from a Napoleonic-style
inquisitorial system to an Anglo-American-style adversial system."
Despite such, one expert notes that "It is a problem of corruption,
not of a lack of legal powers." I couldn't agree more; the Spanish
system of complex (but detailed) civil codes can be as specific and
detailed as they want; far from its arbitrary Anglo-American counter-
part. Puerto Rican legislators have in recent years boosted traffic
violation fines, surpassing many stateside standards, only to see the
islands chaotic driving culture remain untouched, as official lack the
authority and tools to enforce these codes.
Corruption is rampant throughout Latin American politics. I admit
that. Even if you were to sack the entire government bureaucracy and
replaced them with honest public servants (even those with passionate
ideological or religious motivations, such as revolutionaries and
fundamentalists), it wouldn't take long for our old ways to creep back
in. I attribute this cycle to our culture, for nepotism, favoritism,
and paternalism are cultural traits of our everyday lives. All of the
mentioned memes foment corruption and especially bureaucracy. As Plato
said, our government is a representation of its people.
The solution? Obviously, legislation and checks and balances won't do
the trick. These same laws will be difficult to implement and these
traditions will always find a way to creep in. Every Governor Puerto
Rico has had in previous decades has promised to govern more
efficiently and re-invent government; always with no avail.
We hook up friends with jobs when we work in the private sector, only
to scorn our leaders for hooking up theirs with contracts. This will
always happen as long as we - in our private spheres - continue to
hook up friends with jobs. So then why not eliminate the hook ups that
a public sector could give out to his friends? Drastically minimize
the need for the public sector to contract the private sector in the
first place. I'm strongly opposed to Rossello's monolithic public
works not because all of them are unnecessary, but because such large
transfers of funds from the public to the private sector make it oh so
easy for corruption to take place. Most of the corruption occurring
during his administration, I must point out, took place during the
realization of such contracts. Cut off a thief's hands and you impede
his ability to steal. Take away the jobs, the contracts, and the
favors that a public official can hand out, and you have neutralized
him.
Aside from being natural nepotists, we are also natural paternalists.
Max Weber, Samual Huntington, Lawrence Harrington, and were the most
noted scholar to note the socio-economic and political effects of
paternalism, often attributing it to our strong Catholic roots.
Naturally, we will look towards our Mayors, Legislators, and Governors
for hand outs and solutions to our personal problems. (I have had
young men who have recently impregnated their girlfriends sit in front
of my office desk, wining about how my Municipal government isn't
doing anything to help him out of his bind. I laughed, considering the
fact that only a few years before I was in the same bind. What did I
do? I looked for a better paying job.) But what if we were to take
away the power of our Mayors and Legislators? Not by creating new
posts or passing their responsibilities to other government sectors,
but by decentralizing their power by handing it over to their
constituents. I have often spoken of popular neighborhood assemblies
that would meet periodically to decide the fate of their proportion of
public coffers. If it were not neighborhood assemblies that decided
which of their roads are paved, which bridges are fixed, and how they
will spend their public dollars, then why stand in line on a Friday
morning at the Mayor's office in hopes to win him over to your cause?
Do you feel that your tax dollars should be spent on new street posts?
Do you want your tax dollars to be equally distributed among the tax
payers? Do you want a free handout to pay for a lagging bill? Then
present the proposal to your neighbors at your next town square
assembly. |
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