The last time we wrote about why the negative attitude towards Western culture in Kazakhstan is so harmful, it is the result of a primitive perception of both Western culture and our native culture.
Today we will shed light on what this generalized term “Western” culture is. And let’s look at the useful things that Kazakh society can learn from the social and economic institutions of the countries of the Western world.
But first, let’s go back to Western culture itself, the term ‘Western culture’ itself represents all the legacy of Western civilization with which it can be associated, democratic institutions and popular culture can be vulgar in recent years. But it so happened that when they talk about the negative influence of Western culture on our society, the consciousness basically paints a picture of different pop artists incomprehensible to the older generation, excessively liberal views and consumer cultures.
But needless to say, this perception is wrong, and these things are only a small part of the cultural influence of the so-called “West”.
Moreover, in the modern globalized world, the basic values of almost all participants in international relations are quite similar to each other, which is why the excessive opposition of different cultures, which differ in the modern world only by different historical heritage and some national characteristics, seems embarrassing to Somewhat. For example, we can compare the cultural characteristics of the same French and Americans, who traditionally belong to one Western world. Therefore, in general, the difference in cultures and mentality is quite noticeable, but the general principles of economic and social relations between these two nations have relatively few differences. Modern Kazakhstan is also progressing on the heels of universal values, however, some cultural features of Kazakhstan impede the development of our state. Since culture is one of the factors that influence the formation of institutions, it becomes something that even affects the economic success of a nation.
In the future, we will take as a basis the world’s bestselling economic book Why Some Countries Are Rich and Others Poor by Daron Anjimoglu and James Robinson.
In this book, the main theory of the authors is the division of different societies into those dominated by inclusive institutions, and those dominated by so-called extractive institutions.
Inclusive institutions are those institutions that allow and encourage the participation of large groups of the population in economic activity, and this allows for better use of people’s talents and skills based on their personal freedom to choose where to work and what to buy. Inclusive institutions are always closely linked to evolving social elevators, which means that an individual can secure a decent job for himself guided by personal skills, not family ties or corrupt methods.
In addition, inclusive institutions require a fair judiciary and freedom of expression.
The authors conclude that it is precisely inclusive institutions that occur in the world’s most developed countries, which are mostly Western countries, with some exceptions.
As for extractive institutions, the authors understand them as those institutions designed to exploit one part of the population for the enrichment of another. In a more global sense, extractive institutions restrict the participation of social masses in economic relations, relegating them to the place of an exploited social group. Emotional intelligence is also characterized by weaning people from the results of their work.
The authors note in their book that the classic extraction system took place in the Soviet Union.
Despite the existence of social elevators, and even the beginnings of universal institutions, in the Soviet Union the population was completely deprived of the basic foundations of an inclusive society. The development of the country itself was also extensive, and could not guarantee long-term sustainable intensive development.
Thus, Kazakhstan and all post-Soviet republics inherited the thinking based on the old extractive institutions. Moreover, due to the peculiarities of the feudal structure of the nomadic society in the past, it has been extracted throughout our history. Thus, the development of independent thinking, the creation of comprehensive institutions, is the factor that can ensure the successful economic prosperity of our republic.
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