Then, on a visit to Warsaw, I got a different perspective. There, a senior government official told me that his government saw adequate pay for civil servants as a critical factor in eliminating bribery. Beyond merely providing a subsistence wage, the Polish government understands that pay comparability and respect are important to ensuring ethical behavior. I have strong reservations about the particular processes set up by the Federal Employees' Pay Comparability Act, but pay comparability matters. They independently fund and deliver services, such as Salvation Army assistance to the needy and church-run schools.
Western models vary.
The United States, with its Jeffersonian suspicion of large governments, has an especially strong non-governmental sector. Australians, in contrast, find our use of the voluntary sector instead of the state to deliver social services peculiar. In France, the church has historically predominated in the social services business, especially health and education. If we did not have NGOs, we would have to invent mechanisms and institutions to perform the roles they play for us. And that is what is happening in Eastern Europe.