World on Fire - Brownstein, Michael [140]
Sociologists and anthropologists have been trying for years to understand the economic success of some groups over others. Ever since Max Weber argued that Protestantism was more conducive to capital accumulation than Catholicism, religion has often been cited as a critical determinant of group economic success. More recently, many have stressed cultural factors—for example, group differences in work habits, savings propensities, or attitudes toward education, commerce, and wealth—to explain differentials in group economic performance.
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To the extent that religion and other cultural factors play a significant role in producing the market dominance of certain groups, the appropriate policy implications are by no means clear. Even if there were a demonstrable relationship between certain religions and economic success, an effort to instill “entrepreneurialism” through, say, group conversions to Protestantism (or Judaism or Confucianism, depending on the theory) would seem unpromising. Attempts to inculcate a “work ethic” may seem more attractive, but have not proved any more effective. Indigenous elites in developing countries have frequently encouraged their fellow citizens to emulate market-dominant minorities and to become more “diligent” and “motivated.” Malaysia’s prime minister Mahathir, for example, has often urged his Malay constituents to model themselves on their more “hardworking” and commercially “astute” Chinese counterparts.
11 Not surprisingly, such governmental “cultural revolutions”—attempting to change culture from the top down—have been notoriously unsuccessful.
Apart from the issue of feasibility, there is also a moral question. “Culture” cannot simply be treated as an inconvenient impediment to free markets. Even if it were possible to transform every developing-world villager into a consumer entrepreneur, it is hardly obvious that this ought to be the goal of development policy.
But the fundamental point is this. To “level the playing field” in developing societies—to try to bring impoverished, often illiterate majorities up to the level where they can compete successfully with the hypercapitalized market-dominant minorities in their midst—will be a painfully slow process, taking generations if it is possible at all. As a result, overreliance on this strategy is unwise. Leaving in place for years or even decades the existing ethnic economic imbalances, long-term efforts to “level the playing field” assume a horizon of social stability that many non-Western countries do not have. Indeed, in the short term, investment in education and other forms of human capital can contribute to ethnonationalist movements. As many have pointed out, the relationship between education and ethnonationalism is by no means straightforward; Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda pilots were very well educated.
Policies to expand education and promote equal opportunity, while comforting and uncontroversial, do not directly address the pressing, potentially explosive problems of ethnic resentment and ethnonationalist hatred that threaten so many developing and post-socialist societies today. To address these problems it will be essential to try to devise measures and create institutions restraining the worst excesses of markets and democracy—excesses that in the presence of a market-dominant minority often lead to confiscations, authoritarian backlash, and mass slaughter.
Stakeholding: Spreading the Benefits of Markets
The essential problem is that in societies with a market-dominant minority, laissez-faire capitalism leaves significant numbers of the relatively impoverished majority feeling that they have no stake in globalization or a market economy. There are at least four basic strategies for redressing this problem. Each has drawbacks; some are more controversial than others; and some might be inappropriate or infeasible in particular contexts. But all should be seriously considered.
The first and most familiar strategy for wealth-spreading is redistribution through tax-and-transfer programs.