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All the best"-
Charlie Wheelan,
aka The Naked Economist
Is there a correlation between parking fines and corruption in a foreign country? Try parking on the street on the East side, near the UN sometime.
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
This is a very interesting and important topic in my opinion, and I think what they found makes sense. It makes sense that individuals from different countries would not act equally corrupt in a lawless situation, but instead would bring their cultural levels of corruption with them. Corruption is a culturally based behavior, and seems to be based upon cultural norms of interpersonal relations and respect for authority and government, which in turn is probably based upon ones perception of the integrity of their respective governmental system. Therefore Americans and others with a fair and just system are more likely to respect rules and laws and avoid corruption, which is generally true. Even if they do not need to follow the rules, as in this example, people from an honest society are more likely to follow the rules anyway, because that is what they are used to and that is what their conscience tells them to do. People who live in countries where laws are unjust and meaningless have the cultural tendency to do what is in their best personal interests as long as they can get away with it and disregard laws whenever there is a more favorable alternative. This is a huge difference between the cultures of the 3rd world and our culture. And it is something that these corrupt countries will have to get over if they wish to progress. I found the way that these two men used scientific and experimental techniques to look at a social phenomenon was very interesting.
This study shows that laws are more about psychology than what is phisically written down on paper. All countries have pretty similar basic laws. Their effectiveness relys more on the confidence and attitude of the citizens. If an individual has respect for his country, he will tend to obey its laws nomatter where he is. If someone comes from a culture with a weak national presence, he will tend to disregard laws nomatter where he is. This shows that obedience to laws is a cultural trend, not an indication of what the specific laws are.
The points expressed in this study are common behavior in all human actions. If one knows he or she will be caught when doing illegal activity or something considered wrong than they are obiviously less likely to do it. Humans generally have a fear of being caught but if one has developed illegal habits then they are more likey to perform these actions any where they are despite laws which may be implemented in another country. Humans are simply habitual creatures and no matter what the habit is they cannot help it but to complete these activities even if they are immoral or illegal.
it is obvious that diplomats tend to commit parking violations in correlation to the crime rates in their countries. if you come from a country with a higher crime rate, you are most likely going to have a hightened disregard for the law, especially a law that is imposed by another country that you do not neccessarily have to follow. as pierce noted it is more of a cultural trend than anything else.
St. John would be all over this experiment. First of all, they really should've taken a control group, because honestly, who wouldn't park illegally if they knew they wouldnt get caught. I dont think parking violations have enough correlation to corruption to be deemed significally significant.
5 comments:
This is a very interesting and important topic in my opinion, and I think what they found makes sense. It makes sense that individuals from different countries would not act equally corrupt in a lawless situation, but instead would bring their cultural levels of corruption with them. Corruption is a culturally based behavior, and seems to be based upon cultural norms of interpersonal relations and respect for authority and government, which in turn is probably based upon ones perception of the integrity of their respective governmental system. Therefore Americans and others with a fair and just system are more likely to respect rules and laws and avoid corruption, which is generally true. Even if they do not need to follow the rules, as in this example, people from an honest society are more likely to follow the rules anyway, because that is what they are used to and that is what their conscience tells them to do. People who live in countries where laws are unjust and meaningless have the cultural tendency to do what is in their best personal interests as long as they can get away with it and disregard laws whenever there is a more favorable alternative. This is a huge difference between the cultures of the 3rd world and our culture. And it is something that these corrupt countries will have to get over if they wish to progress. I found the way that these two men used scientific and experimental techniques to look at a social phenomenon was very interesting.
This study shows that laws are more about psychology than what is phisically written down on paper. All countries have pretty similar basic laws. Their effectiveness relys more on the confidence and attitude of the citizens. If an individual has respect for his country, he will tend to obey its laws nomatter where he is. If someone comes from a culture with a weak national presence, he will tend to disregard laws nomatter where he is. This shows that obedience to laws is a cultural trend, not an indication of what the specific laws are.
The points expressed in this study are common behavior in all human actions. If one knows he or she will be caught when doing illegal activity or something considered wrong than they are obiviously less likely to do it. Humans generally have a fear of being caught but if one has developed illegal habits then they are more likey to perform these actions any where they are despite laws which may be implemented in another country. Humans are simply habitual creatures and no matter what the habit is they cannot help it but to complete these activities even if they are immoral or illegal.
it is obvious that diplomats tend to commit parking violations in correlation to the crime rates in their countries. if you come from a country with a higher crime rate, you are most likely going to have a hightened disregard for the law, especially a law that is imposed by another country that you do not neccessarily have to follow. as pierce noted it is more of a cultural trend than anything else.
St. John would be all over this experiment. First of all, they really should've taken a control group, because honestly, who wouldn't park illegally if they knew they wouldnt get caught. I dont think parking violations have enough correlation to corruption to be deemed significally significant.
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