Addressing Common Challenges and Future Directions

Abstract

Abstract This chapter addresses some key objections to my approach and policy recommendations and it also discusses some notable areas for future work. One set of important objections concerns the view that cultural differences should be more relevant to the arguments of the book, such as in identifying what corruption is and appropriate tools for addressing it. Several responses to these concerns are discussed. There are issues about just how widely accepted some purported cultural norms are and whether ordinary citizens from those cultures really do endorse particular norms as appropriate ones for the public sphere, when they deprive citizens of their basic entitlements and human rights. Furthermore, in places where corrupt norms do seem widespread, people often comply with them because they believe they are too difficult to change, given how deeply embedded they seem to be and perceptions about their actions’ efficacy. In such cases we have collective action problems and we have a number of resources that can be, and have been, brought to bear in challenging those cultural norms and reforming them. The chapter discusses some of these resources, shows how they have contributed to progress around the world, and identifies some of their core features that can be applied to other contexts. The chapter also outlines some areas that might be the focus of future research in this complex terrain.