THE WEST IS AN IDEA, NOT A PLACE:

Entrepreneurialism and culture (Red Herring)

There is a bifurcation of inventiveness on the planet. A few places do all the entrepreneurial heavy lifting, the rest look on. Consider patents, one measure of a nation''s inventiveness: in 2000, the United States generated 175,983 patents and Israel 2,024--or, respectively, 633 and 355 patents per million people. By contrast, Brazil (in 1999) produced 3,219 patents, or just 19 per million people.

Finland is more entrepreneurial than France. The Chinese satellites of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan are more entrepreneurial than mainland China, which is entrepreneurial only in parts. The United States, India, and Israel are the exemplary entrepreneurial countries.

Why? Biologists sometimes use the word culture as a verb: they speak of culturing micro?rganisms in conditions where they will thrive. By extension, how may a people culture entrepreneurialism in technology?

The policies that encourage technological innovation and its commercialization are well known. A nation must have respect for the rule of law, particularly for intellectual property rights. Its financial, labor, and telecommunications markets must not be gratuitously regulated. Its government must enthusiastically subsidize elementary, secondary, and university education. Its universities and government agencies must pursue scientific research, and there must be an established, unrestricted mechanism for "technology transfer" from such bodies to private enterprise. Its ministries of finance must strive officiously to attract--and retain--foreign investment.

Yet many countries that support such policies nevertheless are not fertile ground for innovative startups. This is because culture--to use the word in its
nonscientific sense--is a crucial element in entrepreneurialism. [...]

When I think about the most entrepreneurial cultures I have visited, I recognize certain common attributes. Such cultures possess a large, literate middle class--even if the greater part of their populations are still poor peasants (I am thinking of the contrast between India''s cities and its dusty interior). They do not admire aristocrats. They applaud adventurous risks and smile at failure. They rejoice in the free exchange of ideas, because they do not believe dissent is anarchy. They are cheerfully materialistic, whatever their spiritual traditions (I am thinking of that supermarket of religions, the United States). They are culturally diverse, or at least exposed to diverse cultures. They are hopelessly infatuated with technology. And they place an extraordinarily high value on the education of their children. I note in passing that none of these attributes are exclusively Western.

Much of American thinking--on foreign policy, economic, etc.--remains mired in a past where Europe mattered. It no longer does. It's high time for us to shift our focus away from the dying nations of Europe and toward those countries who still share Western cultural values and whose futures, therefore, look brightest. We should offer both Israel and India membership in NAFTA and offer to form some kind of NATO-style military alliance with them. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 21, 2002 8:18 AM