Is There Any Difference Between A Bribe And An Incentive?
David Cameron, the United Kingdom
prime minister, recently announced that his government would permit oil
companies to carry out Fracking in some parts of the United Kingdom. Fracking is a slang term for
hydraulic fracturing. It refers to the process of creating fractures in rocks
and rock formations by injecting fluid into cracks to force them further open.
The prime minister also promised
that local authorities in the affected regions will be allowed to keep 100 % of
the business tax rate which may arise from the oil exploration. According to the government, this will serve
as an incentive for further developments in the affected areas. Critics, however, have argued that the decision
is an act of bribery rather than an act of incentivising the local communities
for greater good.
How can we establish that this decision
to allow local authorities to take 100 per cent of business tax rate from companies
involved in the oil fracking is an incentive rather than a bribe? The answer can be found in the definitions of
these two concepts – a bribe and an incentive. A bribe is to dishonestly
persuade someone to act in one’s favour by a gift of money or other inducement. This definition suggests that there is a
clear intention on the part of the bribe giver to influence the recipient’s
behaviour. That is, the person receiving the bribe is expected to act in favour
of the bribe giver.
In contrast, an incentive is a
thing that motivates or encourages someone to do something. Unlike a bribe, there seems to be no act of compulsion
to change the recipient’s behaviour implied in this definition. The recipient of an incentive is free to act
as he or she feels fit. This assumption
however is flawed.
The rationale for giving a bribe
or an incentives is to influence the recipients’ behaviour in favour of the bribe
or incentive giver. A government cannot
give incentives to people, for example, if it is certain that these people will
not act in its favour. Consider the issuing
of food vouchers to people suspected of not having balanced diets in their
meals for example.
Although food vouchers might help
these people to have balanced diet and remain healthy. Food vouchers can also help to reduce the
number of malnourished people who can fall sick and use hospital
resources. If it can spend less
resources on hospitals, the government will have enough resources to take care
of other sectors. These can include spending
more resources on the economy and education.
At the end these sectors will improve and everyone will fell happy with
the government. Thus, the government
will get re-elected into power as a result of the indirect role played by the
food voucher.
Similarly, employers cannot give
incentives to employees if they are certain that these workers will not definitely
act in the company’s favour. They give
incentives to employees so they can work harder and increase productivity. Increase in productivity can result in more
sales, leading to more profits for the employers.
It is apparent from these that both
a bribe and an incentive are designed to achieve the same goal but in different
ways. A bribe is mostly used openly to
influence the recipient’s behaviour whereas an Incentive is used covertly to
influence the recipient’s behaviour. Therefore,
the decision by the UK to allow local authorities to keep all the business tax
rate from oil companies involved in fracking process can be considered both a
bribe and an incentive. The definition will
depend on the person doing the interpretation of the situation
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