WHY SHOULD OUR LEADERS CARE FOR YOU ?

One of the most enjoyable hobbies of educated middle class people in India whom I know is to berate politicians and bureaucrats. I confess to belong to this tribe at least most of the time if not all the time.

In the last five years or so I have devoted most of my research to the study of human nature with special reference to the way our minds work. I have authored two books on this subject and the third one is on its way.

I have found one consistent aspect of our natures across cultures that could help us better understand the behavior of people all over the world,
BY AND LARGE PEOPLE RESPOND TO INCENTIVES/DISINCENTIVES.

If you have an incentive to be honest you will be honest. If you are given sufficient incentive to act in a particular manner you will probably act in that manner.

Let us analyze the behavior of our politicians in India.[Let me hasten to add that politicians are the same everywhere—they all respond to incentives and disincentives]

In the context of the controversy over reservations in higher education for OBC candidates let us look at the incentives for a politician in reserving such seats. Let us also look at the middle class lament that no effort has been made to give good primary and secondary schooling to the under privileged. “Ultimately” so say the middle class, “it is this Good school education—that can liberate the dispossessed people from poverty and attendant social and economic problems”.

Now look at the same issues from the point of view of a politician like Arjun Singh or Mulayam or Laloo Yadav.
These gentlemen are as serious about their political careers as you are about your career. You will do what it takes to retain and grow in your job. You may even sacrifice your family life and even your health in the interests of your career. Some of my friends confess that in the early years of their married life they spent so much time on their jobs that it came as a shock to them when their daughter introduced them to their boy friend. “Oh God ! My baby is ready for marriage and I have not spent even one day playing with her’ they say with shock.

That being the case why do we expect our leaders to be any different in the pursuit of their careers?

Arjun Singh and the other gentlemen I have named will tell you as follows–
“If I fight the middle class resistance and amend the constitution to get OBC people a quota in I.I.M or I.I.T, I am assured of the votes of the entire OBC voting population since they can see benefits coming in a few months. On the other hand if I listen to the middle class suggestion of setting up schools what electoral benefit can I expect in the forthcoming bye-elections or mid-term or general elections? Ok you say that in the long run I and my party will benefit politically when these youngsters passing out of schools and colleges will be grateful to my party for setting up schools. But do you think of the long run in making career moves? Why are so many executives suffering from BP, Diabetes , heart attack which could have been avoided of these people had thought of the long run and slowed down their lives and had been less ambitious?”

You get the spirit of my viewpoint. It is incentives/disincentives that influence our behavior most of the time. A small minority looks at issues with a larger perspective. These leaders go on to be the Gandhijis . The Baba Amtes who are so rare that we remember them for generations.

We the middle classes are cast on the same mould as our politicians. Don’t we think nothing of cleaning up our house and dumping the dirt on to the streets? Don’t we use our influence to get our kids admissions into good schools or colleges? We will of course justify it in some sense and try to shift blame to the “system “or ‘politicians’ etc. while not admitting that we have an incentive to behave that way—our kid’s future! You can see the way we economize on the use of water when water charges are hiked even as we waste it when it is almost free.

Its all about incentives. To people who are familiar with monetary terms only my reference is to COST/BENEFIT.

It is one of the most memorable observations in psychology. It is called the TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS.

What it says is that people everywhere take care of their personal interests even at the cost of the common welfare.
PEOPLE ARE THE SAME EVERYWHERE.