Category: Economics, Finance, and Political Economy

http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2009/03/why_is_spain_so_corruptWHY IS SPAIN (AND THE REST OF THE WORLD) CORRUPT? – THE EVIDENCE

This is a fairly hot topic in political economy. But I think Norberg is correct, and the critic Giné that argues that it’s structural, is himself, falling for the mistake that he himself cautions against.

From what we can tell, corruption is the NORM in the world. Universalism is unique to northern Europe. It is present ONLY in germanic countries with universal militia participation, the nuclear family, individual property rights, extensive outbreeding, and prohibitions on cousin marriage.

The last being the problem with most of the world. Small homogenous countries that are highly interrelated because of a prohibition on cousin marriage, and who have universal private property rights, where the nuclear family is the unit of reproductive and economic production, lack corruption – and those that are diverse, pluralistic, and inbred treat family, clan, and tribe as the unit of economic and reproductive production.

It’s pretty simple economics and incentives when you understand what’s going on.

Now you won’t like it if you carry the logic through much farther. Because it explains a bit more about birth rate problems. Single motherhood and extensive participation of women in the work force is only possible for two or three generations. The Romans couldn’t change it and neither can we. Competitive reproduction punishes folly.

The fact is that spain has corruption in government, and structural corruption in government, because of its historical values. These values are called ‘ catholic’ and catholic countries share it. But it’s not because they’re catholic. It’s because these countries REMAINED catholic, because they remained with with strong, paternal extended family structures, and the authoritarianism and extended familism that .

Cultures develop formal institutions to INSTITUTIONALIZE their informal institutions. States mirror moral codes. And moral codes mirror family structures. And family structures mirror the reproductive strategy that mirrors the necessary structure of economic production. (If you can follow that entire chain of events.)

This is expressly counter to the democratic equalitarian, egalitarian, universalist, postmodern mythos that democratic states run on and obtain their legitimacy from.

So, The Spanish may be corrupt. But the fact is, that there will always be SPANISH people. We can’t say the same for northern Europeans. There aren’t enough european countries bast the 12% mark, where subcultures under democracy seek political power and divisiveness that they could not obtain under monarchy, which denies people access to disruptive political power.

See Edward Banfield’s “The Moral Basis of a Backward Society”. Which started this discussion many years ago. See _Trust_ by Fukuyama who has tried to popularize the problem. See Emmanuel Todd’s _Explanation of Ideology: Family Structures and Social Systems_ . See Macfarlane: The Origins of English Individualism

Also of related interest:

Ricardo Duchesne: The Uniqueness of Western Civilization

Huntington: Culture Matters

Acemoglu: Why Nations Fail

Fukuyama: The Origins Of Political Order

But a word of caution, is that this topic is a third rail. And if you pursue it you’ll be demonized for it. 🙂