That's because in authoritarianism it's all already eroded.
Corruption erodes social trust more in democracies than in autocracies
401–410 of 414 posts
Re: Corruption erodes social trust more in democracies than in autocracies
#402Earlier quoted context omitted.
Access to corruption is never widely understood and accessible to every person, otherwise it would be written into law and stated plainly for everyone to see. Corruption is a form of economic eugenics that breeds fraudsters and cheaters who can buy into the in-group via know-how, money or aesthetics while slowing the growth of a law abiding populace that competes honestly on merit but doesn't fit the unwritten rules…
Trump also made a great contribution to corruption around the world, by pausing enforcement of anti-corruption laws with the EO "Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement" https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/paus...
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Re: Corruption erodes social trust more in democracies than in autocracies
#403Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US is still mostly a Rule of Law country, in the sense that courts enforce the laws as written most of the time. But which laws are passed by Congress and signed by the President are mostly determined by financial donations more so than public opinion.
With enough money you can define what corruption means.
Campaign contributions are called bribery in every country on earth bar one
Re: Corruption erodes social trust more in democracies than in autocracies
#404Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right. And oh my do I hate blat. It's a difficult concept to translate to English because it's not synonymous with corruption or bribes. A one-time bribe transaction isn't blat. You want a school to accept your kid so you "gift" the school some supplies, that's not blat, it's a one-time thing and the school principal doesn't owe you any additional favors. Blat is more like a social network of people trading favors, a…
None of those examples you gave sound like corruption to me, with the possible exception of tickets. It seems to me that the problem is when people who are in a position of power and responsibility abuse their power for personal ends. Plumbing or tutoring or cheese are privately held goods and surely the possessors of those goods can dispose of them how they want? Or perhaps in all of these examples the plumber/groce…
I'm not the person you were replying to, but they gave you some "toy" examples; let me give you some real ones.
My grandmother was ill. My grandfather, her husband, was sufficiently well connected that she got good medical coverage. Then he died. And so we lost our connections to the good doctors, to the good healthcare she was getting, and her care got significantly worse.
We have a family member with some property that's in a weird state, paperwork-wise. We were working on it, because another family member had a friend in the bureaucracy - think, the local tax office - who could have helped us sort it out on paper. Then he died. So now, we have to do things by the book, which is incredibly difficult without having a friend there to cut through the red tape.
It's not about getting the plumber to prioritize your work, or getting the nice slice of cheese. It's about making sure grandma's osteoporosis gets treated, it's about not losing your house.
Re: Corruption erodes social trust more in democracies than in autocracies
#405It's well known that in authoritarian regimes (which autocracies generally are) corruption is, rather than a problem, a necessary element of society to keep things going. Anyone with the slightest amount of official power, like a government officer, has the ability to prevent things going forward on his part. In this kind of society, most people are poor and it would be considered stupid to not demand a small (or lar…
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Re: Corruption erodes social trust more in democracies than in autocracies
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds like it's in the US? That's a known third-world country, in this respect at least.
If you don't think this would happen even in an 'idyllic' scandi country or wherever, you're mistaken.
No way, the Norwegian Prime Minister certainly was not doing anything corrupt or trading any criminal favors with Epstein, that's all just a vast conspiracy theory.
Re: Corruption erodes social trust more in democracies than in autocracies
#407Re: Corruption erodes social trust more in democracies than in autocracies
#408Earlier quoted context omitted.
The original context of this thread is the validity of china’s data in this trust survey. Interjecting with positive example of nazi germany is not even correct. There’s no way anyone can argue in good faith that nazi germany was high trust. The nazis don’t need you to come to their defense. Nazism is basically ignoring the will of their own people and actively working against them.
Can you please point out where I said Nazi regime was high trust? Its trust level was even lower than of its predecessor.
> Its trust level was even lower than of its predecessor.
Yes? How does that preclude Germany still having absolutely high trust (by global standards), even if it was lower than the even higher levels before?
Re: Corruption erodes social trust more in democracies than in autocracies
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Unfortunately, I see a global trend of governments making the same mistakes again What are those?
Ignoring the wishes of the majority. Forcing own ideology upon everyone. Neglecting the well-being of the productively working people.
You are letting voters off too easily here.
Re: Corruption erodes social trust more in democracies than in autocracies
#410Earlier quoted context omitted.
>it's mostly all of us that have a say Do you?
I mean, literally so in a democracy, no? You could argue 'we' (whoever that is) do not live in a democracy, but to say that a plurality of voices do not matter in a democracy seems wrong at face-value.
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