This is an article about corruption in India, with an emphasis on the many practices
mediated through the dealings of middlemen (see, on this topic [35, 40]). By examining
historical and cultural aspects of government, authority, and roles of influence, by
expanding the time horizon to look at extended chains of dealings, and by emphasizing
intangible aspects of such deals as well as material gains and losses, we place an important
family of corrupt processes back into their social context. Corrupt dealings are one kind of
adaptive response to that context, enabling people to pursue interests of several kinds in
ways that fall well short of the ideal yet reduce transaction costs and control uncertainties.
Middlemen, we will suggest, constrain both opportunities for, and likely outcomes of,
corruption, as they facilitate multi-stranded processes of exchange, bridge gaps among
classes, and build networks, all over extended periods of time. They may mitigate some of the
economic damage we might otherwise expect corruption to produce, thus helping unravel
India’s paradoxical pattern of solid long-term growth – and even more impressive expansion
in recent years – in the face of pervasive corruption. The corrupt dealings of middlemen, as
well as the many other perfectly legal exchanges they conduct, are thus much more complex
practices than a material accounting alone would suggest. Further, for participants and society
alike they may well be preferable to existing alternative ways of getting things done.
This is an article about corruption in India, with an emphasis on the many practicesmediated through the dealings of middlemen (see, on this topic [35, 40]). By examininghistorical and cultural aspects of government, authority, and roles of influence, byexpanding the time horizon to look at extended chains of dealings, and by emphasizingintangible aspects of such deals as well as material gains and losses, we place an importantfamily of corrupt processes back into their social context. Corrupt dealings are one kind ofadaptive response to that context, enabling people to pursue interests of several kinds inways that fall well short of the ideal yet reduce transaction costs and control uncertainties.Middlemen, we will suggest, constrain both opportunities for, and likely outcomes of,corruption, as they facilitate multi-stranded processes of exchange, bridge gaps amongclasses, and build networks, all over extended periods of time. They may mitigate some of theeconomic damage we might otherwise expect corruption to produce, thus helping unravelIndia’s paradoxical pattern of solid long-term growth – and even more impressive expansionin recent years – in the face of pervasive corruption. The corrupt dealings of middlemen, aswell as the many other perfectly legal exchanges they conduct, are thus much more complexpractices than a material accounting alone would suggest. Further, for participants and societyalike they may well be preferable to existing alternative ways of getting things done.
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..
