Go Nokia!

October 8, 2003 12:57 PM

Looking over this list of corruption levels by country, it is evident that there is some correlation between corruption and quality of life. But which is cause and which is effect? And since these numbers are only relative, are things getting better overall, or worse? How corrupt is your country?
posted by eas98 (11 comments total)

The CPI, which the chart linked to is based on, is also known as the "Corruption Perceptions Index." It measures "...the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians." That is to say, it does not measure corruption in some objective manner so much as how corrupt survey participants believe a country is.

This is noteworthy because while corruption is quite open and customary in some places, in some -- such as the USA -- an vast portion (economically speaking) of corrupt business is conducted at a very high level and well out of the view of the populace. This isn't a measure of how much one pays off the cop to make a ticket go away.

"... the index provides a snapshot of the views of decision-makers, who take key decisions on investment and trade" says to me that essentially this is an opinion poll based on a very narrow sample preselected for a particular type of view.

Context, I'm afraid is everything.
posted by majick at 1:18 PM on October 8, 2003

So Canada is tied with the UK, where's our David Kelly?
posted by Space Coyote at 1:22 PM on October 8, 2003

It's a shame about the rampant corruption in Iceland.
posted by lazy-ville at 1:48 PM on October 8, 2003

Good point majick, but maybe perception is more important in some cases. If the populace believes in the system, they are more likely to help contribute and be productive while in it.
posted by eas98 at 1:56 PM on October 8, 2003

Time for fun with math:

These data are meaningless. Look at the standard deviations for Iraq, Bangladesh - they're greater than or equal to 50% of the result. That's utterly pathetic. Even worse is being able to derive the results of the surveys back - Iraq has a min score of 1.2, and a max score of 3.4, and an average score of 2.2. Since there were only THREE SURVEYS used for Iraq, gee, I wonder what the other survey said?

And who did they ask, and what questions were on the survey? Did they go around asking people "Is your government corrupt? Answer on a scale from 1-10." Who knows?
posted by Veritron at 1:58 PM on October 8, 2003

Transparency International (TI), the global anti-corruption organisation, today released its Bribe Payers Index (BPI) 2002, showing very high levels of bribery in developing countries by corporations from Russia, China, Taiwan and South Korea, as well as numerous leading industrial nations, all of which now have laws making corrupt payments to foreign officials a crime.

Did anyone else catch this? The bible index? Does anyone have any more info on this? Does this mean non-Christians are always corrupt? I don't get it.
posted by Bag Man at 3:51 PM on October 8, 2003

That's bribe payer, not bible prayer. Perhaps you might want to get that knee jerk checked out.
posted by will at 4:02 PM on October 8, 2003

Hey... how'd us yanks fare in this study?
posted by namespan at 4:45 PM on October 8, 2003

Perhaps you might want to get that knee jerk checked out.

No, I just need to read better, sorry. I think Will you need to clam down and your knee back too.
posted by Bag Man at 5:27 PM on October 8, 2003

If Will, there is further proof that my post was not a knee jerk reaction. It is the fact that I solicited other opinions before coming to a final conclusion...Will I'm guess you just itching to out the smack down you forget that people can make mistakes.
posted by Bag Man at 5:35 PM on October 8, 2003

Only in the world's most incorrupt country could you have traffic tickets proportional to yearly income. This man, Teemu Selanne, was issued a forty thousand dollar traffic ticket.
Said Mr. Jaako Rytsola, when he broke Teemu Selanne's record, "This is no constitutionally governed state, this is a land of rhinos!"

My friend told me Kenyan airport authorities were known to charge tourists with *cough* import taxes *cough* for their luggage and personal items. "President Kibaki has pledged to tackle the corruption problem."
posted by philfromhavelock at 10:23 PM on October 8, 2003