Caroline Paulsen, Chapter 3, Question 5

One theme in this chapter that I found disturbing, though not surprising, is the level of corruption and inefficiency in some governments. Charles Wheelan gives the Indian justice system as an example of an inefficient government. In India, cases can get delayed for generations due to inefficiency. While I was in Kenya, evidence of an inefficient and corrupt government was ubiquitous. Part of this was in the poor maintenance of public goods— for example, well-marked roads pretty much ended a little ways outside of Nairobi. Much of the corruption was influenced by the divisions between the different tribes. One woman that I talked to told me about how she had been threatened to vote a certain way in the upcoming election in order to keep a certain person (and therefore a certain tribe) in power.