The level of informality and corruption that exists in the western countries is beyond imagination. Practically, there are two levels of interaction state-individual; first, it is the general and formal one, which serves more as a legal image; and the second, it is the informal one. Regardless of appearing as a very formal entity, a western state functions like a private organization that can break the rules anytime it is deemed necessary.
For example, the employees of a company or governmental agency or municipality are subject to a formal contract, but the employer could give to every single individual a tailored contract and could do favors in a non transparent way. There is no way for other employees to know about it. The political and the legal systems are designed to allow such things.
At the same time, it is quite possible for the government to pass a law or for an employer to change a policy, which seems very general, but they could do this to address only one single individual. It is very common. Such laws and regulations can be formulated vaguely, which can be interpreted to target one single person. In case there are other people who fall into the category, they will be treated as special cases; they will be excluded.
In a way or another, a typical modern government is designed to have a private and informal relation with every single citizen because this way they are controlled easier and they can be used against one another. The funny part is that if all citizens get aware of this informal relation with the state, the concept of formality makes no sense and the concept of the rule of law becomes irrelevant, but they will never be aware collectively.
Therefore, the concept of the rule of law serves more as an image. It gives people the impression that the state or the company is doing them a favor, that they are treated as special cases. This makes sense as long as individuals are not aware collectively.
For the small minority of citizens who are not spies and who do not think they need any favor in order to succeed because they are qualified enough to walk on their feet and obey formal laws and rules, they will suffer the most. The western political system is not designed to favor such people; on the contrary, it is designed to oppress them. It is so ironical. On one hand, such citizens take everything at its face value, such as laws and regulations, so they study hard, struggle to excel in everything, but, on the other hand, the system punishes them the most.
The political system does not prefer people who want to follow the rules and succeed independently. The government wants people to rely on it so they can be controlled. However, the government will never say this explicitly. That’s why academically-bad students and weak people succeed the most under this political system.
While such discriminated individuals think this exits only in their country, the truth of the matter is that this happens everywhere.
Sabri Lushi
