Uncle George

Uncle George came to town yesterday. That's seriously what the staffers call Soros in the office, Gyoribacsi. He and other economistis/political scientists/thinkers arranged for a little roundtable discussion to kick-off the start of the Central European University's summer session. The topic? Open Society in Fragile States.

I dragged Noemi along. We got good seats because we were among the first people to sit in the little CEU auditorium. Paul Collier's an important man, they say, but the digital camera flash bulbs didn't pop when he opened the discussion. Everyone saved their picture for Uncle George's turn at the microphone. Eight billion dollars and political activism will create a funny sense of celebrity.

The most interesting observation? The resource curse.

Developing democracies with vast amounts of valuable resources will often regress toward authoritarianism. Why? Certainly there's more incentive for plunder the state coffers if you're the leader of a rich country. But perhaps just as importantly, the people don't have much incentive to complain. Resource-rich countries don't have to tax their citizens much, if at all. And as taxes decrease, so too does citizen participation in governance. There just isn't as much incentive to be actively involved in criticizing and correcting governance. Just think what kind of blinders the pledge of "tax cuts" buys even in our own America.