What regulates human behaviour
Behaviour is how we conduct ourselves towards others. For example, most teenagers rebel against parents as they try to establish their own identities. At workplace, employees oblige their managers.
Broadly speaking, three things that regulate behaviour include:
Religious beliefs
All religions universally teach us to be better humans and refrain from causing harm to others. It’s a different matter that some religious scriptures are misinterpreted to cause harm as seen in the case of Islamic State misinterpreting Quran and seeking to subjugate non-Sunnis. However, on the whole, religion is seen as an important component of human conduct.
Society
It includes family, educational institutions and other social systems. In India, family is very central to social stability. It provides not only social security for the elderly but also ensures effective upbringing of children. On the other hand, in the West, up to 2%-3% of GDP is spent on child care services and significant costs are incurred on geriatric care. Quality education imparts greater civic sense and promotes social cohesion by condoning proper conduct and condemning wrongdoings. Of course, there are certain follies as well. The family system in India tacitly approves patriarchy and to an extent curbs individualism. Children feel compelled to obey their parents at the cost of choosing their life partners and/or occupations. Caste system in India has been divisive but thankfully, it is on the wane.
State
The State encompasses governments, law enforcement agencies, courts and military. Its role in enabling trustworthy human behaviour is questionable. The regulatory institutions have stifled unleashing of animal spirits of citizens vis-a-vis entrepreneurship and economic activities. Land, labor and infrastructure reforms have been pending for far too long. Policy uncertainty and weak rule of law have failed to foster predictability in the economy. For instance, recently, Walmart acquired Flipkart for $16 billion but before the ink even dried on the deal, the government modified e-commerce rules without addressing concerns of the corporate world.
When the state is unable to engender trust and predictability, it disincentivises responsible behaviour. For instance, before introduction of competitive bidding in auctioning of spectrum; access to telecom spectrum depended on political patronage. It resulted in political arbitrage and crony capitalism. But with increased transparency in auctioning through competitive bidding, predictability was brought in.
However, these are just islands of prosperity in the ocean of unpredictability engendered by the State. While religious beliefs and society have, on the whole, been effective when it comes to regulating behaviour, the State has largely been ineffective. Going ahead, the State needs to respond better so that human behaviour can become more predictable, trustworthy and thus, effective.
