ȂȄȅ Partʺʺ: Politics and Philosophy
they have an actual obligation to speak out at great personal cost. I am urg-
ing a good deal less. Anyone who does render that public service deserves
at least sympathetic understanding.
Worse than free riding on other people’s carrying the burden of protest
against injustices is the free-riding of the culprits themselves. Ļe more
prevalent and well based is the belief that people are generally decent
and honest, the greater is the chance that culprits have to benefit from
the presumption that they too have these virtues. Ļey will enjoy a free
ride on, while posing unfair competition with, the warranted credibility of
other people. I conjecture that a general atmosphere of decency and trust
in society is unstable for at least two reasons. Ļe more prevalent knav-
ery becomes, the stronger is the temptation on the individual to behave
likewise, rather than lie down like a doormat (HazlittȀȈȅȃ, pp.ȀȄȄ–ȀȄȅ).
On the other hand, as I have just been arguing, when morality does gen-
erally prevail, the individual violator has a correspondingly high chance
of profiting from the presumption that he is decent and honest though
he is not.ȀȂ
Just asX-inefficiency probably causes more economic loss than alloca-
tive inefficiency,Ȁȃso, I conjecture, does the impairment of social cooper-
ation through erosion of the presumption of decency and honesty. Ļat
presumption—and its basis in fact—is practically indispensable for coor-
dination of individuals’ diverse activities and so for an economically pro-
gressive society. What economists are capable of contributing to analysis
of this connection may well have more significance for welfare than further
refinements of the analysis of deviations from Pareto-optimality. Already,
some of the best writings on economic backwardness and economic devel-
opment do lay stress on the ethos of society.ȀȄ
ȀȂFurthermore, as Buchanan (ȀȈȅȄ) has explained, largeness of the society or group
concerned probably increases the temptation on the individual to behave immorally.
ȀȃĻe standard reference to a burgeoning literature on this topic is LeibensteinȀȈȅȅ.
ȀȄBanfieldȀȈȄȇhas shown the role of “amoral familism” (an excessively narrow and
short-run concern for the material welfare of the nuclear family), together with dishon-
esty, suspiciousness, and envy, in impeding social cooperation and economic development
in a town of southern Italy aroundȀȈȄȄ. Ļe importance of attitudes and culture for devel-
opment or backwardness is the main theme of ZinkinȀȈȅȂ. While Zinkin does not par-
ticularly emphasize trustworthiness and honesty, he does recognize their importance in
several contexts. He also notes the importance of bureaucrats’ abiding by principle rather
than undercutting predictability by deciding each case on its own merits. See also Wraith
and SimpkinsȀȈȅȃ, particularly pp.ȀȄȄ,ȀȄȆ,ȀȇȈ, where the authors note the role of business
and accounting in deterring corruption.