sometimes it seems that Spain is living a kind of nightmare standing of corruption, whether in the form of plagiarism of university degrees, theft or diversion of public funds, or public exams committed. In these circumstances as unfortunate, the growing cynicism of the average citizen towards their public institutions is perfectly understandable.
it Is difficult to know with certainty the true level of corruption in economic and political institutions, because by definition, the acts of corruption that come to light are just the ones that are discovered publicly. However, it seems to be that fraud, and favors unlawful affect a large number of public institutions, whether educational, economic or political.
The press and the courts have been able to reveal the identity of some of the protagonists of the corruption and describe their machinations, sometimes with a level of precision that is admirable. But the mere fact of having a greater knowledge of cases of corruption will not end with the core problem. Until there is a political will and moral to cope with their true roots, this scourge will continue to grow like a cancer in our institutions, political, economic, and educational.
it Is said that institutions are as effective and fair as the people who comprise it. Many of the potential reforms in our public institutions will be in vain if not accompanied by a hard work of cultural reform. If we want to combat the corrupt practices that are ruining our public life in deshonradez and injustice, we need to examine the internal culture of the institutions involved, both as the cultural context in general that facilitates the consolidation of these practices.
The culture, i.e. the attitudes, customs, and informal norms of a social field, is a determining factor in the development of any human organization. If we stay at the level of the legalisms or the institutional design without considering these cultural factors we will never attain to understand the sources of criminal behavior and irresponsible. For example, if we try to establish institutional procedures to monitor the financial corruption, without reforming the habits and attitudes that promote and protect the corrupt behaviour, financial actors will be able to apply their talents and knowledge of the law to dodge the regulations anti-corruption. Made the law, made the trap.
Unfortunately, our entrepreneurs, political leaders and journalists tend on many occasions to focus on the facts surface of the corruption, without delving into its cultural roots, and without defining the defining features of an institutional culture which is corrupt. Therefore, although learn how to identify instances isolated behavioral corrupted, it seems to be that we lack the conceptual tools to interrogate the pathologies of culture that the underlying.
If we want to achieve an accurate diagnosis of the institutional corruption we begin with a greater understanding of the failure personal of the individuals involved. The institutional corruption typically is not limited to a single act, but rather expresses a vice, that is, a stable disposition to act unfairly or irresponsibly, on the part of a person or a group of people. Its counterpart, the virtue is a stable disposition to act in an honest, fair, or responsible. The vices come to us quite easily. The virtues, on the other hand, are only acquired through patient learning and training, with the help of credible role models.
If we want to overcome the level of analysis offered by the media circus of accusations and contraacusaciones that we find so often in the political parties, we need to understand the ethical culture of our institutions-economic, political and educational, that is to say, the tone, the attitudes, narratives and expectations that, together, define the human sense of the institution. We need to deepen our understanding of the cultural conditions that tend to favour the development of the human virtues. Only in this way can we ensure that regulatory reforms are an institutional culture more or less receptive.
Several studies of institutional corruption have shown that the ethical tone of an institution, especially as reflected in its leadership and high command, it is key to motivate and support individuals who aspire to adjust their conduct to the highest standards of their profession and act at all times so honest and fair.
If so, then the regulatory reforms should be complemented with rigorous evaluation and independent of the ethical tone that permeates our public institutions, in particular the character and the mentality of its leaders and senior officers; the standards expressed in narratives, customs, and expectations institutional; and the operating rules, written and unwritten, which guide employees in their day-to-day. This assessment should encabezarse by people known for their high professional ability as much as his impeccable character.
public institutions, and eventually also private, could take out important benefits of an independent assessment of your internal culture, as the mere fact of having to submit to an independent assessment would show a willingness to be serious combat corrupt practices within the institution. Is more, if the public and private institutions to respond proactively to the recommendations of independent reports, they could start to rebuild trust and public credibility that have been lost in recent decades.
David Thunder is Ramón y Cajal researcher of the Institute for Culture and Society of the University of Navarra. He is the author of the book Citizenship and the Pursuit of the Worthy Life (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
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