better-bribes

Better Bribes

An African businessman is offering African leaders a cash prize plus a pension on leaving office. What do they have to do? Give him tax incentives? Award him government monopolies? Well, no. The prize is for how well they govern their countries, based on performance in economy, education, health, and so on. The percieved problem is that leaders often accept bribes so that they'll be able to continue to live as they've become accustomed to after they leave office. The prize would give them an incentive for behaving well, instead. This actually strikes me as being a very good idea, and I hope it works out. In an age where we see brown envelope scandal after brown envelope scandal, maybe a European analogue wouldn't go amiss, either.