Economic Growth and Law
By Michael Breen
President Lee Myung-bak spoke up for the rule of law Monday, saying that the rich and the powerful should strictly follow it to show the legal system applies equally and fairly to everyone.
His comments appeared to be a call for an end to the lenient treatment of business leaders whose crimes are tolerated and whose sentences, in the few cases that come to court, rarely amount to real punishment because of the defendants' perceived contribution to national economic growth.
However, if the presidential instruction is followed ― and that's a big ``if'' because the judiciary now acts independently ― we should not expect anything more than one or two gestures towards change. We may still expect courts to weigh national benefit in approaching wrongdoing by the chaebol.
The clue to that conclusion lies in Lee's own argument. ``Our nation's law-abiding spirit is still not on a par with our leading economic status,'' he said. ``And that is a major hurdle for us to clear before joining the ranks of advanced nations in the world.''
In this view, the national economy is the end and the fair application of law a means to achieve it.
It is not unusual for government leaders to talk in this way because so much of their job is focused on the economy. But it is an argument that has been repeated so often that is has become received thinking among the citizenry as well. We may say that this is how a majority of Koreans view the purpose of their country.
But, as a view of society, it is fundamentally flawed.
If you consider other means of achieving advanced nation status, aside from fair application of the law, it becomes apparent how contradictory considerations can interfere with the law.
Take, for example, national reputation. If you are applying the law with a view to national economic benefit, the reputation consideration opens the way for courts to give an elderly leader of an old fashioned industry like, say, shipbuilding, a harsher sentence than someone associated with a modern industry, like asset management. Punishing the old guy would be good PR for the new Korea, whereas a tough punishment for the financial fellow risks sending the wrong message to foreign investors.
This dilemma can only be solved if you decouple application of the law from the interests of the national economy. In other words, you have to be willing to fairly apply the law even if doing so damages the national economy.
If not to benefit the nation's economy, what, then, is the purpose of fairly enforcing the law?
The answer here is obvious, but it is one that is not applied in Korea. The purpose of a rational legal system that is fairly applied is to make it possible for large numbers of people to live together in harmony. Societies whose citizens are not law abiding are either kept together by more fickle and usually more brutal means, such as dictatorial political or religious power, or they are uncontrolled and have high murder rates.
You can see examples of such societies around the world, including in parts of some developed countries.
The desired objective of an advanced nation is social happiness and we can only be happy when we follow the same rules.
There are, of course, other means to individual and social happiness, such as freedom, security, care for others, and the ability to forgive, some of which can be weighed by the courts without undermining confidence in the law.
In this picture, individual wealth can be a means to happiness because it allows, in theory, for greater freedom and greater choice in personal decision-making, including the decision to care for others. In the happy society model, national economic growth is a means to allow individuals to become wealthy if they so wish.
Thus, national economic growth is a means to a means to an end. Make it the end and you will neither achieved advanced nation status, nor rid your society of corruption.
Michael Breen is chairman of Insight Communications Consultants Exclusive Partner of FD International. He can be reached at mike.breen@insightcomms.com