According to a recent study, the United States has more public sector corruption than do many other developed economies. More precisely, Transparency International reports that corruption perceptions are higher for the United States than for 21 other countries. Those nations perceived to be less-corrupt are:
- Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom;
- The Nordics: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden;
- Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Switzerland;
- Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore;
- Barbados and Chile; and
- Qatar.
A more positive spin would be that the United States is viewed as less corrupt than 155 other nations in the study. But many of those other nations are much poorer. For benchmarking purposes, it makes sense to compare the United States to other developed economies. The following chart thus shows the Transparency International measure (in which higher numbers represent less corruption) for all the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development:
The United States ties with Belgium as the 18th least corrupt member of the OECD.
These findings gibe with what several friends in the international investment community have told me. In their view the United States has slipped in its commitment to the rule of law. At the margin, that makes places like New Zealand, Australia, and the Nordics more attractive places to invest.
About the Transparency International numbers: TI creates its Corruption Perceptions Index by aggregating 13 corruption surveys performed by other organizations (e.g., the World Bank and the Economist Intelligence Unit). As The Economist notes, the TI methodology raises some questions. But it’s still an interesting snapshot of corruption perceptions in the world.
“In [friends'] view the United States has slipped in its commitment to the rule of law.”
Pretty damning. In my view, much of this terrible slippage has come from none other than the SCOTUS, in actions such as assigning rights to corporations as if they were Constitutional persons, when in fact corporations exist only as creations of Congress. From striking down the intent of Congress in making it almost impossible to bring claims under the Sherman anti-trust act because its economic theories are “quaint.”
Both of these striking watersheds have nothing to do with reading the Constitution, rather, the opposite. Not only have we been sold down the river, it’s been by the party that purports to protect us from such debasement of our rights.
I’m sure your friends have other examples. It’d be valuable to hear them.
[...] THE BANANA REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES? By Greg Ransom, on October 31st, 2010 If you live in California, New Orleans, or Chicago, you can’t doubt this. [...]
the key word is “perceptions”…the reality is much more sinister…
“Perception” is only a measure of popularity. It is not a fact of relative corruption. The problem faced by the USA is that it is too large, and our political system is insufficient for a democratic republic of this size and complexity.
The vast progress that has been made by human beings has largely been due to the invention of technologies, namely the scientific method, mathematics and in particular probability, but including laws, regulations, accounting, banking and interest – technologies that improve our fairly limited if not entirely incompetent perceptions. Our perceptions are notoriously faulty.
So what instead are meaningful measures of corruption. Corruption defined as the privatization of public office for personal benefit?
Most people confuse corruption with immorality or incompetence. And those three artifacts of human behavior each have different causes. The vast majority of the references that people actually refer to are the result of natural bureaucratic incompetence when bureaucrats are isolated from the market process of competition. The rest are either the natural side effect of the democratic process which all but requires deception, or the difference between an individual’s perception of the real world, and the actions that are possible under this form of government given the size and diversity of classes, races cultures and economic interests that exist in the polity.
As such the rating is nonsensical. It is trivial for Denmark to have lower perceived corruption than the USA. However, it is in fact, far harder to to create lower perceived corruption in the vast bureaucracy of an international empire like the USA.
Because perceptible corruption is largely the result of whether you agree or disagree with what you perceive.
People in government are rarely evil. They are more likely lazy, ignorant, incompetent, or simply happy to profit from their isolation from the market process and their ability to dodge the delivery of customer service we experience in the rest of our lives.
Well, as yogi berra may have said “perception is in the eye of the beholder.” wouldnt actual corruption crime statistics help here too? if the USA is so corrupt, wouldnt we also be less productive than these peers? how do we measure up there? maybe one man s corruption is another man’s hustle?
America is bigger as a population and more diverse than its allegedly less corrupt peers. I wonder if the corruption perception (and reality) isn’t coming mainly from certain sub sectors within America, eg, the big cities and toward congress, all of which are one party places controlled by the dems. There also may be some cultural differences in the USA with regard to toleration corruption as a way of life (see also my native “Sopranos lite” RI). I know in metro DC where i live now, DC itself and PG county are very dirty when it comes to real estate development (my industry) matters and my own Montgomery co, md has recently been shown to be pretty corrupt in its oversight of development rights. Loudoun co Va when it was all GOP ruled was too. metro dc jurisdictions where there is party parity or at least a strong minority, however, seem much less corrupt (see also fairfax, prince william, frederick, Arundel counties)………..the GOP seems much less inclined to machine politics is my sense as it is less demogoguic.
My larger point being that conservatives and libertarians (real ones) push for transparency, line item veto, term limits, meaningful campaign finance reform, anti voter fraud procedures, etc. and other devices that encourage clean and cleaner govt; we also push for smaller govt for the reason that smaller govt, corrupt or honest, can do less harm to the citizenry…………it would be interesting to drill down into this rpt to see if I m right and how corruption perceptions track across American submkts. The other factors that I would think come into play with govt corruption are prevalence of unions as a voter block (esp public sector ones), one party dominance, sub cultural toleration of corruption, and organized crime power.
finally, it is remarkable that Suisse be considered less corrupt than the USA as it is a country whose economy is based on facilitating global tax evasion. I m sure al capone s mom thought him a nice boy too.
A triangle has 3 sides, one is in Washington D.C., one is on Wall Street, in New York City, where is the 3rd side?
Some say the demise of real government and the rise of corrupt cronyism began with the bullet(s) that killed JFK. Certainly the CIA has been a major conduit of insider corporate information used to manipulate both the general populace and the business communities. The CIA is largely a corrupt artifice of the wealthy eastern families, Yale stands large as a recruiting center. George Bush senior was a Yale man and director of the CIA, he became a U.S. president who invaded Iraq and was involved in illegal arms trading with Nicaragua, Israel and a host of other countries.
A George Bush was notified of the death of JFK, suprisingly he was in Dallas Texas on the day of the assasination. George Herbert Walker Bush is one of the very few Americans who does not recall where he was when JFK was killed. Yet, a document, recently declassified, places him very close to Dallas within 2 hours of JFK’s assassination:
http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/bush.htm
http://www.tomflocco.com/fs/FbiMemoPhotoLinkBushJfk.htm
The corruption runs deep and long in this nation, the wealth of the general populace is funneled off into the largest banks which are owned by the oligarchy as is the government and the intelligence agencies.
Unless we can undo this web of deceit, the death of democracy is assured. We are now a 3rd world country waiting to collapse, most likely the currency will be devalued as soon as a new reserve currency is ready. After that all the dominos begin to fall.
[...] How Corrupt is the United States? [...]
The United State of America, is by far the most corrupt
and violent nation on the planet Earth, over the last 40
years has killed more civilians, destroyed more villages
and towns and the economic lively hood of more 3 rd world
countries and for that matter this country then any other nation
since the Roman Empire. Our government is absolutely
corrupt, our banking system and capitalism in the USA is
an absolute failure. Wall Street is a crap shot at best and
the US Justice System is absolute Bull, the middle class and
the poor receive unequal justice. We have prisons for profit,
Judges on the take from rehab centers all over the USA not
just in Penn. Cops are setting kids up to do crimes with their
Own Criminal Gangs…racketeering. The USA is an absolute
failure, our families abandon their kids to MTV, Rap Crap,
TV reality shows of bad behavior, our schools 1-12 are now
ranked 52 in the World…meaning 30 .. 3rd world countries
have better school systems. Our food is so processed the
nutritional value is poor, how many are extremely over
weight, where are American Jobs, where are Baby Boomer
retirement accounts, where is accountability by the government? It is absolutely time for class warfare, it is time for
action. Fail to act then within 5 years the USA will be no
more. The Union will not exist! I am never wrong….when
it comes to this type of prediction….the USA will come to
and end sometime between September 2011 and September 2016. Not may be it will end! JIM EVANHOE
MARCH 2011……..bet on these words, as they are the truth, they are coming true every day, every week every
month and every year!
If you have the means to get out of the USA do so as soon as possible…..for if the government criminals do not end it
all………..Mother Nature will see that it does come to and
end…..September 2011 will be a very big natural blow out
for Mother Nature are here in Western Wyoming….can you guess what it will be?