Did Corruption really start in the East?

Bharat Jhunjhunwala, New Delhi' bharatj@nda.vsnl.net.in

Eastern countries are often ranked at the top among the corrupt countries. Certain traits of their culture may be contributing to this unfortunate situation.

Corruption increases along with the all-pervasive expansion of bureaucracy. Oil extracted from seeds was used to light the lamps in the past. Now consumers take an electricity connection from the public utilities for the same purpose. The consumer's autonomy is eroded and he becomes dependent on the bureaucracy that runs the utility. This makes the bureaucracy powerful.

The utilities have to appoint a large number of officers to manage the centralized power grid where employees are place in a hierarchical order. The junior employees are expected to follow the orders of their superiors' unquestioningly. They are expected to put the voice of their heart in cold storage. They become insensitive to the problems of the consumer because their hearts are 'closed'.

Corruption, therefore, is rooted in modern centralized production systems. Electricity, canals, railways, posts and drinking water-are all managed by such centralized bureaucracies.

Thus sociologist Max Webber argued that "bureaucratic coordination of activities is the distinctive mark of the modern era. Only through this organizational device has large-scale planning, both for the modern state and the modern economy, become possible. Bureaucratization of the modern world has let to its depersonalization. It is as suitable for capitalism as it succeeds in achieving the exclusion of love, hatred, and every purely personal, especially irrational and incalculable, feeling from the execution of official tasks."

But this role of bureaucracy is common both to the Western and Eastern cultures. Why should it lead to more corruption in the East? The answer may lie in a fundamental difference between our cultures.

The Western culture is mind or 'conscious'-centered. Sigmund Freud portrayed the unconscious as an obstruction, which has to be 'managed' by the conscious. The negation of unconscious means that the conscious mind can be more easily molded as desired. Thus, the government servants in the West follow the training regarding honesty, politeness, courtesy, etc. imparted to them in great measure. No wonder German philosopher Hegel wrote that civil servants will turn to be dispassionate, upright, and polite tin part as "a result of direct education in thought and ethical conduct."

The Eastern cultures, on the other hand, give great importance to the unconscious as a liberating element. They believe that every child is born with some unique tendencies that are imprinted deep in the unconscious. Those imprints continually provoke the conscious to act according to their direction.

The solution to this, is that the tendencies should be brought out, recognized and the conscious should do their bidding. The spiritual teachers suggest that tea and coffee should be given up because these drinks dampen the voice of the unconscious. Meditation is designed to invigorate the unconscious.

The Eastern civil servant assesses the training imparted to him on the touchstone of his unconscious tendencies. A clerk in the Electricity Department may have been trained to work honestly. But his unconscious tendency may be to earn money. In the West he would be unaware of his unconscious tendency and work honestly-as trained.

But in East his unconscious prods him to make money and he ignores the training and becomes corrupt. The Eastern civil servant is like a horse tied in the stable-firmly rooted in his unconscious. His Western counterpart has no stable and can be tied to any tree that the trainer desires.

This problem is recognized by Western sociologist. Adrian Worsfold argues "the whole area of rational action is quite muddy. The problem with (Weber's) analysis is simply that humans are not so rational, nor are they forced to become more rational." The problem, according to Philip Selznick, lay in the fact that "bureaucracies were not and could not be like machines because they consisted of human beings.

In the final analysis, people will simply not imitate machines." It is clear that Western sociologist recognize that the human mind is not as trainable as Hegel and Weber thought. Yet the Western civil servant is more 'trainable' than the Eastern is, because he does not face the obstruction from his unconscious. It follows that corruption may be rooted in the Eastern culture that gives greater importance to the unconscious.

This does not mean, however, that they should adopt the 'conscious'-centered Western culture. True and durable happiness comes from unity between the conscious and the unconscious. The focus on the unconscious is fundamentally correct, but Eastern people will have to make a system that check corruption less by training and more by other means.

Perhaps they should give more attention to Hegel's suggestion: "The sovereign working on the middle class on the top, and Corporation-right working on it at the bottom, are the institutions which effectively prevent (the middle class bureaucracy) from acquiring the isolated position of an aristocracy and using its education and skills as a means to an arbitrary tyranny."

More special respect and protection should be given to those individuals who strengthen the 'Corporation rights' of the people. It is better to define the role of civil society clearly for this purpose.

But whatever the case is, it must be accepted that there is more corruption in East because people's unconscious is strong and they are not that amenable to training. But this is a strength that has been misdirected. Proper means should developed to handle this strength of Eastern cultures correctly.

The writer obtained his PhD in economics from University of Florida. Presently he is a freelance columnist based at New Delhi.