Which Is The Most Corrupt Country In The World?
Since around about January 20, 2017, things have not been looking so good for America corruption wise. We have a president who stands to be personally enriched by anyone who stays at his hotels or buys his condos, has appointed his own friends and family members to public positions and doesn't seem to have a problem with cabinet members using taxpayer dollars to fund personal luxuries.
But how does the US compare to other countries in terms of corruption? Transparency International, an organization that fights for "a world free of corruption," has compiled an annual Corruption Perception Index since 1995. The 2017 edition, which was released last week, shows that the US, while not as clean as New Zealand, Canada or most Western European countries, is not doing too badly in the grand scheme of things.
The Corruption Perception Index compiles the data from 13 surveys and assessments to assign a score to every country based on how corrupt it is perceived to be by business people and experts who live there. The surveys use a definition of corruption that includes bribery, kickbacks, nepotism and conflicts of interest among public officials, among other types of wrongdoing. It might surprise you that the world's leading corruption index is based on perceptions rather than any kind of hard evidence, but Transparency International explains why subjective measures of corruption are the best data available:
Corruption generally comprises illegal activities, which are deliberately hidden and only come to light through scandals, investigations or prosecutions. Whilst researchers from academia, civil society and governments have made advances in terms of objectively measuring corruption in specific sectors, to date there is no indicator which measures objective national levels of corruption directly and exhaustively.
Transparency International also released a chart showing how perceptions of corruption have changed over the past five years.
As you can see, the US' rating has actually improved ever so slightly since 2012. But if Trump keeps changing the standards of presidential behavior, will our index score fall as perceptions of public corruption change too? Check back in a few years to find out.
