Limiting Common Good in Southern Europe

I’ve stumbled recently on the concept of  amoral familism invoked in an article from a Romanian newspaper.

After researching it, I was completely amazed that I discovered it so hard, when it can be used to describe a vast array of problems Southern Europe is facing. The best definition of the concept is given by the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology: “Social action persistently oriented to the economic interests of the nuclear family“, and it highlights the basic mechanism of asserting value for individuals originating from this region. It is significantly different from methodological individualism (a mindset attributed by von Mises to Europeans), because the individual loses the big social picture (the perspective of the collective good) and focuses exclusively on a narrow group of people that he is discriminating (in a positive sense) without any thought of the general moral (and, in an extreme case, legal) norms.

The first question anyone would ask is if this is not normal, given the fact that anyone cares for its family and is consequently looking out for their best interests. The answer is no, because amoral familism assumes defending the interests of one’s family at any cost.  Countries in which the population exhibits this behavior as predominant are Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. Here are some examples of the behavior that arises from a culture immersed in amoral familism:

1. Using family ties as sole (or, at least, primary) arguments to ascend on the professional latter. In politics, for example the daughter of Traian Băsescu – the president of Romania – is running for the position of MEP. The local press has significant doubts about her professional abilities;

2. Treating the family members as people exempted from the law (protecting them without any regard to the law, in case of a criminal offence or such). This mindset can explain the sociological background that supported the rise of the Mafia in Italy;

3. Profiting from corruption – disregarding the general norms for the benefit of one’s family. Bulgaria was heavily criticized by the European Commission for it’s corruption scandals.

And the list can go on.

Collective values tend to have little or no relevance in cultures revealing this phenomenon, thus provoking ill-functioning institutions and public organizations that act in disregard to the common good. The main economic an political effects are: a strong polarization of wealth and an arbitrary state of law.