- Title Pages
- Dedication
-
Chapter 1 All Societies Die -
Chapter 2 Is a Fall Really a Fall? -
Chapter 3 The Fall of the Byzantine Empire -
Chapter 4 The End Comes to Byzantium -
Chapter 5 The Environmental Causes of Violence in the Middle East -
Chapter 6 The French Revolution -
Chapter 7 How States Actually Die -
Chapter 8 Somalia after the Fall -
Chapter 9 What Links These Stories? -
Chapter 10 Rethinking Ecological Catastrophe -
Chapter 11 Rethinking Moral Crisis -
Chapter 12 Networks of Cooperation -
Chapter 13 Why Bigger Is Better -
Chapter 14 Legitimation -
Chapter 15 Psychological Foundations of Societal Survival -
Chapter 16 Progress That Is Real -
Chapter 17 Progress That Is Real -
Chapter 18 Progress That Is Real -
Chapter 19 The Motivation to Not Cooperate -
Chapter 20 Primitive Accumulation Today -
Chapter 21 The Motivation to Not Cooperate -
Chapter 22 What Can Go Wrong When Western Companies Invest in Poor Nations -
Chapter 23 Cycles of Catastrophic Debt -
Chapter 24 East Asian Secrets of Economic Growth -
Chapter 25 Big Government and Prosperity in the United States -
Chapter 26 The Miracle of Airports -
Chapter 27 The Origins of National Technological Advantage -
Chapter 28 The Economic Returns to Funding Scientific Research -
Chapter 29 The Tax Revolt -
Chapter 30 Why Tax Cuts Do Not Create Jobs -
Chapter 31 The Explosion of Crime in the Global South -
Chapter 32 The Parallel Power -
Chapter 33 A Guide to Corruption for Naive Idealists -
Chapter 34 Technical Demoralization -
Chapter 35 What It Takes to Clean Up Corruption -
Chapter 36 Ethnic Violence -
Chapter 37 Working at Creating a Culture of Hatred -
Chapter 38 Landlessness and Political Violence -
Chapter 39 Landlessness and Political Violence -
Chapter 40 The Global Land Grab -
Chapter 41 Population Growth and Landlessness -
Chapter 42 Triggers of Destruction -
Chapter 43 Long-Term Booms and Busts in Capitalism -
Chapter 44 Technological and International Causes of Stagnation -
Chapter 45 Will There Be a Sixth Mensch Cycle? -
Chapter 46 Ever-Expanding Frontiers of Ecological Destruction -
Chapter 47 Why Women’s Power Matters -
Chapter 48 Patriarchy Redux? -
Chapter 49 The Circle of Societal Death -
Chapter 50 Triggering the Circle of Societal Death -
Chapter 51 Creating a Culture of Societal Survival -
Chapter 52 Changing the Culture of One-Third of the World -
Chapter 53 Creating a Culture of Caretaking -
Chapter 54 Creating Lasting Meaningful Social Reform -
Chapter 55 Creating Lasting Meaningful Social Reform -
Chapter 56 Doing the Right Thing under Impossible Conditions -
Chapter 57 What You Can Do to Save the World -
Appendix Unit of Analysis Issues in Comparative Social Science - Scholarly References
Technical Demoralization
Technical Demoralization
- Chapter:
- (p.117) Chapter 34 Technical Demoralization
- Source:
- All Societies Die
- Author(s):
Samuel Cohn
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
This chapter explains why officials in poor countries are more likely to be corrupt than officials in rich countries. One reason is that even if these officials played things straight, they simply lack the resources to do their jobs. The condition of being unable to do one's job through no fault of one's own can be called technical demoralization. When trying to do one's job is a joke, it no longer really matters whether one follows norms of professionalism or not. The salary of a police officer in Latin America or Afghanistan is generally modest. And one police officer is not going to be able to take out a cartel. So when the drug lord's men come over and offer to help the cop out financially, the officer would be hard-pressed to refuse the offer. The same thing can occur in any branch of government. Public health officials who will never be able to lower the amount of disease in their districts sign off on big, white elephant hospital projects where they can get generous side fees for “consulting.” Engineers who will never be able to build enough roads to accommodate the traffic needs of overpopulated cities throw their projects to shabby, politically connected contractors who stint on materials.
Keywords: poor countries, corruption, technical demoralization, police officers, public officials
Cornell Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
- Title Pages
- Dedication
-
Chapter 1 All Societies Die -
Chapter 2 Is a Fall Really a Fall? -
Chapter 3 The Fall of the Byzantine Empire -
Chapter 4 The End Comes to Byzantium -
Chapter 5 The Environmental Causes of Violence in the Middle East -
Chapter 6 The French Revolution -
Chapter 7 How States Actually Die -
Chapter 8 Somalia after the Fall -
Chapter 9 What Links These Stories? -
Chapter 10 Rethinking Ecological Catastrophe -
Chapter 11 Rethinking Moral Crisis -
Chapter 12 Networks of Cooperation -
Chapter 13 Why Bigger Is Better -
Chapter 14 Legitimation -
Chapter 15 Psychological Foundations of Societal Survival -
Chapter 16 Progress That Is Real -
Chapter 17 Progress That Is Real -
Chapter 18 Progress That Is Real -
Chapter 19 The Motivation to Not Cooperate -
Chapter 20 Primitive Accumulation Today -
Chapter 21 The Motivation to Not Cooperate -
Chapter 22 What Can Go Wrong When Western Companies Invest in Poor Nations -
Chapter 23 Cycles of Catastrophic Debt -
Chapter 24 East Asian Secrets of Economic Growth -
Chapter 25 Big Government and Prosperity in the United States -
Chapter 26 The Miracle of Airports -
Chapter 27 The Origins of National Technological Advantage -
Chapter 28 The Economic Returns to Funding Scientific Research -
Chapter 29 The Tax Revolt -
Chapter 30 Why Tax Cuts Do Not Create Jobs -
Chapter 31 The Explosion of Crime in the Global South -
Chapter 32 The Parallel Power -
Chapter 33 A Guide to Corruption for Naive Idealists -
Chapter 34 Technical Demoralization -
Chapter 35 What It Takes to Clean Up Corruption -
Chapter 36 Ethnic Violence -
Chapter 37 Working at Creating a Culture of Hatred -
Chapter 38 Landlessness and Political Violence -
Chapter 39 Landlessness and Political Violence -
Chapter 40 The Global Land Grab -
Chapter 41 Population Growth and Landlessness -
Chapter 42 Triggers of Destruction -
Chapter 43 Long-Term Booms and Busts in Capitalism -
Chapter 44 Technological and International Causes of Stagnation -
Chapter 45 Will There Be a Sixth Mensch Cycle? -
Chapter 46 Ever-Expanding Frontiers of Ecological Destruction -
Chapter 47 Why Women’s Power Matters -
Chapter 48 Patriarchy Redux? -
Chapter 49 The Circle of Societal Death -
Chapter 50 Triggering the Circle of Societal Death -
Chapter 51 Creating a Culture of Societal Survival -
Chapter 52 Changing the Culture of One-Third of the World -
Chapter 53 Creating a Culture of Caretaking -
Chapter 54 Creating Lasting Meaningful Social Reform -
Chapter 55 Creating Lasting Meaningful Social Reform -
Chapter 56 Doing the Right Thing under Impossible Conditions -
Chapter 57 What You Can Do to Save the World -
Appendix Unit of Analysis Issues in Comparative Social Science - Scholarly References
