United States Dropped Out of the Top 20 Least Corrupt Places to Live and Work

© 2010 Peter Free

 

26 October 2010

 

Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2010 report does not look so good for the United States

 

Transparency International reports on corruption, from least to worst, worldwide.

 

The United States fell from 19th place in 2009 to 22nd in the just released 2010 report.

 

Definition of corruption and basis for national rankings

 

The organization states:

 

Transparency International (TI) defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. This definition encompasses corrupt practices in both the public and private sectors.

 

Perceptions are used because corruption – whether frequency or amount – is to a great extent a hidden activity that is difficult to measure. Over time, perceptions have proved to be a reliable estimate of corruption.

 

The 2010 results are drawn from 13 surveys and assessments published between January 2009 and September 2010.

 

© 2010 Transparency International,

<http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/

surveys_indices/cpi/2010/in_detail#2> (visited 26 October 2010)

 

Transparency International’s sources of perception data

 

Source data for the corruption rankings comes from surveys produced by 10 organizations:

 

Africa Development Bank

Asian Development Bank

Bertelsmann Foundation

Economist Intelligence Unit

Freedom House

Global Insights

Institute for Management Development

Political and Economic Risk Consultancy

World Economic Forum

World Bank

 

The top 25 nations in 2010 are

 

Transparency International’s 2010 rankings:

 

01. Denmark, New Zealand, Singapore

04. Finland, Sweden

06. Canada

07. Netherlands

08. Australia, Switzerland

10. Norway

11. Iceland, Luxembourg

13. Hong Kong

14. Ireland

15. Austria, Germany

17. Barbados, Japan

19. Qatar

20. United Kingdom

21. Chile

22. Belgium, United States

24. Uruguay

25. France

 

A little more American humility might be in order

 

In 2009, there were 18 nations arguably less corrupt than we were.  Today, there are 21.

 

Nineteenth place in 2009 was not all that great, given our fondness for bragging about our superior ways of doing things.  Twenty-second place in 2010 is going the wrong way, at least by the historical American People’s standards.

 

Since United States foreign policy makes a practice of telling other nations how to conduct themselves, perhaps we should spend at least an equal amount of time cleaning up our own act.