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Elster points out that
appeals to individuals to conform to social norms are often counterproductive.
(For example, exhortations to students not to cheat in exams). This may
be because they communicate the fact that non-compliance is widespread
and otherwise unenforceable, or beacuse they remind people of the personal
opportunities and benefits of non-compliance.
Jon Elster, Cement of Society, p 212
Corruption, whether individual or collective, may be self-created
(internally generated, emergent), or it may be deliberately fostered by
outside agents. Individuals and groups may be vulnerable to various kinds
of social attack, leading them into corrupt practices of various kinds.
According to one perspective, the strength of a norm can be measured
by how much you must bribe people to violate it. But Elster
regards this perspective as incomplete. "Sometimes all one has to offer
people is an alternative norm or an alternative description of the targeted
action." [In other words, reframing.]
"It may be easier to seduce a Communist or a Christian than to bribe him.
Jon Elster, Cement of Society, p 130
