Jong-sung You (유종성)
The book explores how
inequality affects corruption and how inequality and corruption influence
trust, including social trust (generalized interpersonal trust) and
institutional trust. After reviewing the relevant literature (Rothstein 2011;
Uslaner 2008), including the author’s earlier works (You 2012; 2015; 2016;
2017; 2018), it presents a theoretical framework incorporating both macro- and
micro-level factors based on a behavioral approach to the rational choice
theories of principal-agent and collective action (Ostrom 1998). It proposes
that high inequality undermines democratic accountability mechanisms and
increases corruption by fueling political clientelism and policy capture by the
elite. It also maintains that inequality and corruption increase people’s
perceptions of unfairness, thereby eroding both interpersonal and institutional
trust. It also suggests that low levels of social and institutional trust make
it difficult to reduce inequality and to curb corruption, both of which require
high levels of collective action capacity of the citizenry, particularly in
democracies. Thus, there can be both virtuous cycles of equality, integrity,
and trust and vicious cycles of inequality, corruption, and distrust.
The book tests
these hypotheses through a comparative historical analysis of Korea, Taiwan and
Japan. It explores how increasing inequality in these East Asian democracies
that traditionally enjoyed the reputation of “growth with equity” (World Bank
1993) influenced political processes and people’s perceptions on fairness. It
attempts to uncover the similarities and differences, paying special attention
to the interactions between electoral and political institutions on the one
hand and economic concentration and inequality on the other hand. In
particular, it will examine how Korea’s chaebol-dominating economy with dual
labor markets have shown similar and different patterns of clientelism and
elite capture, compared with Taiwan and Japan.
It also conducts
statistical analysis of survey data on individuals’ interpersonal and
institutional trust and perceptions of inequality and corruption, such as the
World Values Survey, Asian Barometer Survey, and the Korean General Social
Survey, as well as an experimental survey, to examine the effects of perceived
inequality, corruption, and fairness on both interpersonal and institutional
trust. It will explore the commonalities and differences in the relationships
between these variables across three countries.