You are here
Summer Reading: The Righteous Mind V: Relationships in a WEIRD Culture
Friday, July 13th, 2012
Robert Wechsler
You may not have realized it, but if you are reading this, you are
most likely WEIRD, that is, a member of a culture that is Western,
educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic. The features of WEIRDness
can be summed up in the following sentence from Jonathan Haidt's The
Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and
Religion (Pantheon, 2012): "The WEIRDer you are, the more you
see a world full of separate objects, rather than relationships."
This sentence lit up a lot of bulbs for me. It explained why government ethics, which is (or, at least, should be) all about relationships and the obligations they create, is so difficult for WEIRDos to understand. It's not that we don't have relationships and that we don't recognize that relationships lead to obligations. It's that we don't have much of a vocabulary for relationships, while we have a strong vocabulary for individual rights, including the right to engage in business with whomever we please and the right of our spouses, partners, and clients to do the same. Rights and freedom are central to our concepts of both government and the market. But rights and freedom say nothing about relationships.
In non-WEIRD cultures, there is a strong vocabulary for relationships and obligations. The problem isn't recognizing conflicts among one's obligations, it is determining which ones to give precedence to. Family, business, tribe, and religion usually win out over government obligations. In fact, government jobs and contracts are usually given on the basis of family, business, and tribal ties. Having a strong relationship-oriented vocabulary does not mean that people will embrace government ethics. But they will understand it better.
In a WEIRD culture such as the U.S., government jobs and contracts too often are given on the same basis, but the obligations and conflicts among them are not recognized. It's just the way business is done. It's the bounty of success. You make it and you help those who have helped you. You've been given the job or elected to the office, and it's up to you to make the big decisions.
In a WEIRD culture, the beneficiaries of government actions are often members of officials' family, business associates, or members of their ethnic or racial group, but many of them are not. It's more of an individual thing, with individual relationships more important than group relationships (except for political party).
The effect being WEIRD has can be seen in the way Robert Spagnoletti reacted to talk of his conflicts after he was nominated by the D.C. mayor to be chair of the city's new ethics board. He dealt with each conflict as an isolated incident rather than presenting himself as an individual with many relationships with officials, present, past, and future. In his testimony before a council committee, he said, "I would recuse myself from Board consideration of any matter involving the specific government employee or official with whom the firm is negotiating or requesting relief." This isolates each conflict situation in terms of person and time.
But that's not really how conflicts work, because they are based on relationships, and relationships are ongoing series of contacts and mutual favors, direct and indirect. Negotiations with an assistant agency director will affect one's relationship with the director and with others in the agency. An ethics proceeding, and even an advisory opinion, will affect one's relationship with the official who is the respondent, or who requests the advice, as well as others in the agency. A matter handled by one's partner or associate also affects one's relationship with the officials involved in the matter.
Every individual sits in the midst of a web of relationships, where direct and indirect, past, present, and future, all matter equally. And this is the way even WEIRD people view the world (even without the vocabulary) and how they determine whether government officials are using their offices to help themselves and those with whom they have special relationships.
It isn't important how one man views conflicts of interest. What is important is that the council, the city's attorney general, and the press accepted this view. They did not insist that relationships must be discussed instead of isolated conflicts. And my statements about this did not matter in the least. Everyone involved was just too WEIRD.
Continue with the next post on this book.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
---
This sentence lit up a lot of bulbs for me. It explained why government ethics, which is (or, at least, should be) all about relationships and the obligations they create, is so difficult for WEIRDos to understand. It's not that we don't have relationships and that we don't recognize that relationships lead to obligations. It's that we don't have much of a vocabulary for relationships, while we have a strong vocabulary for individual rights, including the right to engage in business with whomever we please and the right of our spouses, partners, and clients to do the same. Rights and freedom are central to our concepts of both government and the market. But rights and freedom say nothing about relationships.
In non-WEIRD cultures, there is a strong vocabulary for relationships and obligations. The problem isn't recognizing conflicts among one's obligations, it is determining which ones to give precedence to. Family, business, tribe, and religion usually win out over government obligations. In fact, government jobs and contracts are usually given on the basis of family, business, and tribal ties. Having a strong relationship-oriented vocabulary does not mean that people will embrace government ethics. But they will understand it better.
In a WEIRD culture such as the U.S., government jobs and contracts too often are given on the same basis, but the obligations and conflicts among them are not recognized. It's just the way business is done. It's the bounty of success. You make it and you help those who have helped you. You've been given the job or elected to the office, and it's up to you to make the big decisions.
In a WEIRD culture, the beneficiaries of government actions are often members of officials' family, business associates, or members of their ethnic or racial group, but many of them are not. It's more of an individual thing, with individual relationships more important than group relationships (except for political party).
The effect being WEIRD has can be seen in the way Robert Spagnoletti reacted to talk of his conflicts after he was nominated by the D.C. mayor to be chair of the city's new ethics board. He dealt with each conflict as an isolated incident rather than presenting himself as an individual with many relationships with officials, present, past, and future. In his testimony before a council committee, he said, "I would recuse myself from Board consideration of any matter involving the specific government employee or official with whom the firm is negotiating or requesting relief." This isolates each conflict situation in terms of person and time.
But that's not really how conflicts work, because they are based on relationships, and relationships are ongoing series of contacts and mutual favors, direct and indirect. Negotiations with an assistant agency director will affect one's relationship with the director and with others in the agency. An ethics proceeding, and even an advisory opinion, will affect one's relationship with the official who is the respondent, or who requests the advice, as well as others in the agency. A matter handled by one's partner or associate also affects one's relationship with the officials involved in the matter.
Every individual sits in the midst of a web of relationships, where direct and indirect, past, present, and future, all matter equally. And this is the way even WEIRD people view the world (even without the vocabulary) and how they determine whether government officials are using their offices to help themselves and those with whom they have special relationships.
It isn't important how one man views conflicts of interest. What is important is that the council, the city's attorney general, and the press accepted this view. They did not insist that relationships must be discussed instead of isolated conflicts. And my statements about this did not matter in the least. Everyone involved was just too WEIRD.
Continue with the next post on this book.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
---
Story Topics:
- Robert Wechsler's blog
- Log in or register to post comments
