Lobbying =/= Corruption

[Sanjeev Sabhlok <sabhlok@almaak.usc.edu>]

Anonymous sent in:

> Unspoken Scandals: Corruption in the USA meets the Indian Embassy
> 
> Vijay Prashad
> [to appear in People's Democracy, New Delhi]

A) Lobbying =/= Corruption:

The US example is completely irrelevant, in my view, because there exist
what is known as the proper definition of a thing. The article is a
complete mix-up of fundamental concepts.

* What is called corruption by some Indians, about the USA, is nothing but
lobbying or the persuasion of their viewpoint to policymakers by organized
groups of citizens. Even the act of persuading others requires manpower,
technique and therefore money.  When India will hire a lobbyist, it is not
that these lobbyists will go about paying underhand money (I guarantee
that $1.5 million will not buy much "power" in the USA). These lobbyists
will use the latest science of communication, vast research, and other
stuff, to project an image of India favorable to India. Lobbying and
corruption are COMPLETELY different. It is a logical fallacy again, to
compare the embezzlement of funds meant for a school building in an Indian
village with money spent by firms and nations to lobby their views among
powerful decision-makers.

Note that this lobbying is done in public. The press debates the same
issues that are being lobbyied about. These are open things. Even the
funds spent on lobbying are publicly audited and available for scrutiny. 

B) Shades of a thing:

Even assuming that the US is throughly and fully corrupt at the top, let
us look at facts to see its effects: 

* The average US citizen is at least 20 times wealthier than an Indian. 

* The people in US who are classified as poor are very few, and from my
experience, most are much better off than the average middle class person
of India. These poor have cars, for example, and homes. Very few homeless
exist: in comparison to the streets of Bombay, for example, or the slums
of Delhi. 

* The average official in the US is NOT corrupt. The average official in
India is VERY corrupt.

* The average school child in the USA has an excellent school with
compueters and things. The average child in India has not even a roof over
the school building.

In other words, lobbying and policy discussion at the top, even if
"tainted" by "corruption" (which I disputed above) does not have any
adverse consequences for the common man. That is because these are two
different things.

C) You can never eliminate corruption:

People might find one or two examples (I sent in the case of the parking
meter thefts in NY by the parking meter workers) of actual, genuine,
corruption in this society. But nobody ever said that corruption can be
eliminated. It can only be suppressed. 

The boils of corruption are nothing but the consequence of the assumption
of opportunism that economics has recognized as a fundamental behavioral
characteristic in man. Nobody - just nobody - can eliminate corruption. 
Incentives and opportunities will always exist in the nooks and crannies
of decision-making, and so also will the corrupt find shelter in these
dark nooks and crannies. 

However, societies can be nudged over thousands of years toward an
asymptotic state of "Zero corruption." All we can do is to get the corrupt
to be on the run. Today we are invaded in our vitals in India by the
corrupt, and openly so, because of the way we have designed our society
with huge incentives (low wages to government employees, e.g.,) and huge
opportunities (govt.  running the bussiness, e.g.,) for corruption.

Finally, a technical issue: I do think that this free-flowing debate is
now getting too verbose.  Let us revert back to the actual wording of the
manifesto. If there is any other discussion on corruption, perhaps it
should be supported by a specific para that the writer wishes to be
incorporated in the manifesto.

For example, Charu just raised the point again that in India socialism is
only 'claimed' to exist, but is not practiced. That kind of a claim has
been shown earlier to be false. India is a fully practicing socialist
nation, as defined. We have central planning, price fixation and price
distortion, we have the state running industry and banks, we have the
payment to officials not on merit but on 'equality.' We even have it in
the Constitution. So, if Charu would like to propose a specific para to
over-rule an existing one in the manifesto, that will be most welcome
(despite its currently being unintelligble). Else, let us move on to the
details of setting into place the "correct"  incentives and opportunities
to ensure that funds for a school building will not be embezzled, that
Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers will not feel the urgent need to be
the Prime Mafias and Chief Mafias of India. 

SS
























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