Moral Suasion in Different Political Regimes
Although moral suasion can theoretically be used in any political regime, it has a higher chance of being effective in cases where the political authority is centralised and effective.
Centralisation of authority contributes to the effectiveness of moral suasion as a policy tool since it makes the government's positions clearer and more consistent. Attempts by governments to influence the behaviour of companies and citizens can therefore be understood more clearly.
Effectiveness of authority refers to the ease in which the intentions of the political executive can be transformed into legislative or regulatory action. This is important because the governments and agencies can use implied threats of price controls, additional regulation or taxation to induce certain behaviours from companies. Such threats will only have credibility if companies think that these threats will be carried out if they do not comply.
As fewness of economic agents to be persuaded is a necessary condition for moral suasion to be effective, this policy instrument is more adapted to countries with higher concentration of suppliers, both in terms of number and of geography .
Studies suggest that moral suasion is usually not effective in environmental matters in advanced economies. It can, however, still be used for developing countries since there are still easy environmental gains that could be made without heavy-handed regulation.
Read more about this topic: Moral Suasion
Famous quotes containing the words moral and/or political:
“Why is it so difficult to see the lesbian—even when she is there, quite plainly, in front of us? In part because she has been “ghosted”Mor made to seem invisible—by culture itself.... Once the lesbian has been defined as ghostly—the better to drain her of any sensual or moral authority—she can then be exorcised.”
—Terry Castle, U.S. lesbian author. The Apparitional Lesbian, ch. 1 (1993)
“The man possessed of a dollar, feels himself to be not merely one hundred cents richer, but also one hundred cents better, than the man who is penniless; so on through all the gradations of earthly possessions—the estimate of our own moral and political importance swelling always in a ratio exactly proportionate to the growth of our purse.”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)