Page 147 - Cultures and Organizations

126 DIMENSIONS OF NATIONAL CULTURES

exchange—was made in individualist Britain and for its functioning sup-
51
poses an individualist mind-set among its actors. In practice it is regu-
larly threatened by particularist interests, and in a curious paradox, its
supposedly free market needs strong regulation by government.
On the other hand, the economic life in collectivist societies, if not
dominated by government, is in any case based on collective interests.
Family enterprises abound; in the People’s Republic of China, after the
economic liberalization of the 1980s, villages, the army, and municipal
police corps units started their own enterprises.
Individualist countries tend to be wealthier and to have smaller power
distances than collectivist ones. This is a statistical relationship that does
not hold for all countries, but because of this relationship it is sometimes

difficult to separate the effects of wealth, individualism, and smaller power
distance on government. For example, political scientists have developed
an index of press freedom for a large number of countries. This index is

significantly correlated with high IDV and low PDI, but it is most strongly
correlated with national wealth. Greater press freedom in wealthier coun-
tries is a matter not only of individualism and equality but also of resources
such as more newspapers and TV channels and of interest groups with the
means to disseminate their opinions. 52
The right to privacy is a central theme in many individualist societies

that does not find the same sympathy in collectivist societies, where it is
seen as normal and right that one’s in-group can at any time invade one’s
private life.
The difference between a universalist and a particularist treatment of
customers, illustrated by the Johannesson case, applies to the functioning
of the state as a whole. In the individualist society, laws and rights are sup-
posed to be the same for all members and to be applied indiscriminately to

everybody (whether this standard is always met is another question). In the
collectivist society, laws and rights may differ from one category of people
to another—if not in theory, then in the way laws are administered—and
this is not seen as wrong.
If differences in the political systems found in countries are rooted
in their citizens’ mental software, the possibility of infl uencing these sys-
tems by propaganda, money, or arms from another country is limited. If
the minds are not receptive to the message, propaganda and money are