Tolerance, collaboration, and economic growth

Abstract

Institutional (in particular, political) pluralism is a fundamental feature of modern developed societies. Its cultural basis is the tolerance of citizens. The paper proposes to distinguish between legal, evaluative and interactive tolerance. This distinction makes it possible to explain the contradictory results obtained in econometric studies of tolerance and its links with the economic growth. Legal tolerance is the basis of competitive pluralism, and interactive one is the prerequisite for the formation of consensus pluralism, based on the collaboration of various social forces. Struggle for resources, intra- and intercountry inequality, “history wars” and prejudices prevent the strengthening of tolerance. Attention is drawn to the “paradox of political correctness”: dogmatic tolerance generates intolerant behavior. It is noted that interactive tolerance in developing countries is significantly correlated with technological progress and the level of well-being. The existence of this relationship, which is realized through collaboration mechanisms, gives the ground for supposition that, despite the contradictory dynamics of the tolerance level in the past 25 years, tolerance will be strengthening in the long run.