Su_GRE: https://mas.to/@kakape/115895457205354339
Very interesting indeed. 🙏🏻 for sharing this study. Critics will say oh the data’s so old & it’s only from Argentina, but I say disprove it!
From the findings & conclusion (long quote but offers some useful pointers):
“secret police service indeed paid off. Agents attained higher ranks and stayed longer in the security apparatus. These career boosting effects were most pronounced for agents with the lowest early career performance.
“Taken together, our study identifies mundane but universal career concerns as the prime motivation to engage in arduous secret police work. This has important implications. Career pressures serve as the lubricant of repressive machines in autocracies. Leaders can exploit these incentives to maximize bureaucratic compliance. Institutionalized, meritocratic bureaucracies therefore do not contradict autocratic longevity. Likewise, governments can accomplish swift autocratic turns without major bureaucratic resistance. Officials facing career pressures are likely to serve as willing executioners, while their well-placed peers remain silent bystanders. Finally, our study also points to potential problems with international sanctions and transitional justice. Looming risks of discharge or incarceration are unlikely to deter the least competent agents with the lowest career prospects. To the contrary, external threats of legal punishment might even strengthen the dominance of underachievers with doubtful consequences for the production of violence.”
#underachievers #repressiveRegimes #policing #reconnectingConsequencesToCauses
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️