What is needed in order to avoid excessive emigration and crippling brain drain is for a society to provide its members with some “attractions” that will reinforce their normal reluctance to leave. Besides an adequate supply of goods available for individual consumption, such attractions can also consist of what is known to economists as “public goods”; that is, goods that any member of a society can enjoy (consume) without thereby depriving others of their enjoyment (consumption) of these goods. A country’s power and prestige, for example, are a public good that may be enjoyed by all of its citizens, including the most lowly and powerless. Along these lines it has lately been pointed out that social justice may be a public good: individuals may find it enjoyable to live in a society where income distribution is comparatively egalitarian. Other public goods that come to mind include a long record for not becoming involved in international conflict or for guaranteeing human rights and democratic liberties. The latter two would make a country attractive to its citizens, especially in a world where destructive warfare frequently erupts and where many governments habitually suppress criticism and mistreat their political opponents.
The availability in a country of any one of these public goods serves to hold exit at bay and to increase loyalty.
Albert O. Hirschman (2013:325) Exit, Voice and the State – in: The Essential Hirschman – ISBN-13: 9780691159904 (cursief in het origineel)
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zaterdag 10 augustus 2024 – “Zonder Strijd, Geen Overwinning”
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‘ De een zegt: “Vertrek! Er zijn elders groener en graziger weiden.” Hij verdient vast een goede boterham met het ons Nederlanders vertellen waar we naartoe zouden kunnen, op de voor ons meest voordelige en profijtelijke wijze.’
- ‘ De ander zegt: “Ben je gek! Nederland is mijn land. Dat ga ik niet zo maar opgeven en aan die kleine kliek uitzuigers overleveren!” Hij hoopt op een revolutie. Als de Verelendung en verloedering maar ver genoeg is voortgeschreden. “De kruik gaat net zo lang te water tot ze barst.” ‘
‘ Zo zou je het bondig en beknopt kunnen samenvatten. De argumentatie is bij vlagen best boeiend. De keuze moet ieder voor zich maken.’
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uit wikipedia: A key application of Hirschman’s scheme of exit, voice and loyalty has been emigration. Drawing on the analogy of discontent consumers buying elsewhere, “exit” translated into leaving a country and migrating to a different nation-state, while “voice” described the option of articulating discontent, which as Hirschman noted, “can be graduated, all the way from faint grumbling to violent protest”. Hirschman modeled these options as mutually exclusive and postulated a seesaw mechanism: the easier available the exit option, the lower the likelihood of voice. For rulers, emigration served as a safety-valve, by which the discontent renounced on their possibility to articulate protest.