Logic of Collective Action

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Are Leaders or Followers to Blame for Corruption?

ByGrimot Nane Zine

Are Leaders or Followers to Blame for Corruption?

Grimot Nane

Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Studies

Corruption is unsatisfactorily defined as the “misuse of public office for private gain” because it suggests corruption only happens in the public sector [1]. But the definition also indicates that the power of [high] public office is the starting point for corruption. Corruption is characteristically a top-down not bottom-up phenomenon. Read More “Are Leaders or Followers to Blame for Corruption?”

A Response to “Botswana: An African Model for Progress and Prosperity”

ByGrimot Nane Zine

http://gbengaaborowa.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/botswana-an-african-model-for-progress-and-prosperity/#more-134

Botswana, a prosperous African nation (population: 2 million), where I worked a long time ago fits very well with one of Mancur Olson’s most explicit thoughts on the conditions of economic growth and prosperity of a nation. i.e. (a) having a small population and (b) that population being homogeneous. It is a development on Olson’s Logic Collective Action in which the smaller the group (numerically) and the more they have compatible shared interests (shared incentives) which should minimise or eliminate free-riding (getting something for nothing), the better the economy will perform. Multi-ethnic societies like Nigeria (250 ethnic groups at least in 6 distinct geopolitical zones) with a large population (at least 160 million) can never emulate Botswana, according to Olson’s logic and I agree. However, there are alternative views on the subject of economic development and growth. Take a look at China and Indonesia.

Grimot Nane