Requiem for republic - Dilemma

Disclaimer : This is a speculative post, and terms are used rather loosely.

Related posts [1] , [2]

Rationalist's dilemma

Indian performance after the economy was liberalized in 1991 has been impressive, especially when compared to stagnation of previous decade. This can make one conclude that culprit is the state and the citizen is the hero.

But is it really so ? Is all that what is holding India from road to glory is few incompetent politicians and venal bureaucrats. This is a fallacious argument, because the conclusion (i .e. dichotomy between citizen and the state) is misleading and flawed.

The reason behind this is not hard to fathom either. India is a democracy, which means ultimate responsibility lies with the citizen, which means that if the persons at helm of state are corrupt, the blame goes to people, if the institutions are flawed then too it is the public who is responsible.
This is obvious, what is not obvious however is the failure of Indian citizen to create effective institutions for governance, institutions which aid in prosperity and well being of Indians, instead of the opposite, which is now happening.

*Digression follows*

I think the difference can be explained to an extent by notion of self interest. Strictly based on self interest, whether a person tends to invest effort for some activity is broadly dependant on three factors

1. Magnitude of the investment
2. Magnitude of the reward (pay-off)
3. Period of return.

To explain briefly people will tend to choose activities which require less investment, has a high return, and a shorter waiting period over activities with opposite characterstics.

Here it is necessary to point out that there is a trade off involved in the above factors and the choice a person makes broadly reflects influences by the cultural and social environment.
Which is the reason for two persons of same IQ to choose vastly different vocations.

This sets up some interesting problems as far as above our main subject is concerned.

But .......