Live data from Hacker News

Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

transparency.org

51–60 of 61 posts

Re: Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

#51

May be I should download the brochure to learn more about the methodology but some of the countries at the bottom seem weird. North Korea is last ? Is there even room for corruption in the North Korean public sector ? I imagine it being arbitrary and all sort of things but I wouldn't dare attempting to bribe a North Korean official. Does Somalia even have a public sector ?

I recall reading about bribery in North Korea fairly often. I mean, as a foreigner I'm sure it wouldn't get you there, but if you actually live there it sounds fairly common to use bribery to get better jobs, access to schooling, food, or what have you.

Re: Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

#52
post #4

The only one there that doesn't line up with my perceptions is Chile. I went there this time last year and their police and officials were nothing but transparent and professional. The fact that it isn't the same color as Canada must primarily be due to a general bias against South America as a whole.

Chile's a bright light by South American standards, it's true - but there's more to corruption in society than the behavior of officials.

For instance, there's more nepotism and cronyism in Chile's private sector than there is in Canada, which reduces the economic mobility of ordinary Chileans.

Re: Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

#53
post #42
post #4

The only one there that doesn't line up with my perceptions is Chile. I went there this time last year and their police and officials were nothing but transparent and professional. The fact that it isn't the same color as Canada must primarily be due to a general bias against South America as a whole.

It has a pretty similar score to the US, I haven't personally observed police corruption here, have you? (Obviously it goes on, I'm talking about first-hand perception)

Yeah I actually have seen US corruption a couple times. Unprofessional treatment at the border multiple times, unprofessional police officers during routine road stops, I worked for a company that needed their supercontractor to pay off a Senator to get a contract, etc.

Re: Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

#54
post #4

The only one there that doesn't line up with my perceptions is Chile. I went there this time last year and their police and officials were nothing but transparent and professional. The fact that it isn't the same color as Canada must primarily be due to a general bias against South America as a whole.

Or may be things are just uneven.. While officials in touch with foreigners in Santiago are clean, it could be that it's less the case at the local BMV in remote town..

I wasn't just in Santiago, I hit Valparaiso, Pichilemu, some small towns I cannot remember near the mountains and the sea.

Re: Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

#55
post #28

If you're a cynic then the key goes from cheap (dark colored countries) to expensive (lighter colored countries) corruption.

Italy seems to be an outlier in this respect: faring worse than Portugal, Spain and Turkey. Chile and Uruguay seem to be perceived as less corrupt as their GDP per capita would lead you to think. I think we need a scatterplot! With flags: http://imgur.com/Ld0bXTO With names: http://imgur.com/vX7dsTV

Very cool, and illuminating. I'm actually a little surprised to see that lower corruption correlates so well with higher income. Admittedly, I could believe that part of that is a self selecting phenomena - IE, people with money immigrate to non-corrupt places. It may also be that alot of the money that's corrupting the cheap places is flowing from the wealthy ones.

Re: Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

#56
post #55
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Italy seems to be an outlier in this respect: faring worse than Portugal, Spain and Turkey. Chile and Uruguay seem to be perceived as less corrupt as their GDP per capita would lead you to think. I think we need a scatterplot! With flags: http://imgur.com/Ld0bXTO With names: http://imgur.com/vX7dsTV

Very cool, and illuminating. I'm actually a little surprised to see that lower corruption correlates so well with higher income. Admittedly, I could believe that part of that is a self selecting phenomena - IE, people with money immigrate to non-corrupt places. It may also be that alot of the money that's corrupting the cheap places is flowing from the wealthy ones.

First of all this is perceived corruption and not corruption.

Secondly I think it's fairly trivial that often corruption is borne out of a need. I think people emigrate a lot less than you'd think.

Re: Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

#57
post #50

I can not see how Saudi Arabia got that far,corruption is sucking billions there yet it ranks higher than many other countries.

That.

I don't get how Paraguay looks worse than us at Brazil, and Saudi Arabia looks better. I also don't get how Brazil and China can be at the same level, and how Russia can be so worse.

Re: Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, RedHat has a presence in Copenhagen. On the other hand, from what I understand, the government policy about open source is best summarized as "the less the better".

Not sure what you mean by that. The government is generally open to open source ( http://digitaliser.dk/resource/2320552 ), but the two biggest providers of governmental web services don't really use open source. But why is that relevant if you want to seek employment in a Danish private company or start your own company in Denmark?

Well, it's just quite a different attitude from what you get in France, for instance, where, eg, the gendarmes use open source heavily. I'm not quite sure what you want to show with your report, by the way. That the governmental Danish IT department is considering open source as a way of saving cost? I did find this [1] though, which seems to back your position, but at the municipal level.

1: http://opensource.com/government/13/2/danish-municipalities-...

Re: Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

#59
post #56
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very cool, and illuminating. I'm actually a little surprised to see that lower corruption correlates so well with higher income. Admittedly, I could believe that part of that is a self selecting phenomena - IE, people with money immigrate to non-corrupt places. It may also be that alot of the money that's corrupting the cheap places is flowing from the wealthy ones.

First of all this is perceived corruption and not corruption. Secondly I think it's fairly trivial that often corruption is borne out of a need. I think people emigrate a lot less than you'd think.

On the first, the implied assumption is that perceived corruption correlates reasonably well to actual. (I haven't proven)

Don't disagree with the general second statement. Sure, corruption can come about because of an unmet need. It's market forces at work when the market won't respond. But the implied point that the higher per capita income results in less met needs doesn't seem intuitively obvious, since purchasing power often rises at near parity with PC Income. Several places perceived as corrupt on this list actually have better purchasing power per (money unit) than the US.

Re: Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

#60
post #55
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Italy seems to be an outlier in this respect: faring worse than Portugal, Spain and Turkey. Chile and Uruguay seem to be perceived as less corrupt as their GDP per capita would lead you to think. I think we need a scatterplot! With flags: http://imgur.com/Ld0bXTO With names: http://imgur.com/vX7dsTV

Very cool, and illuminating. I'm actually a little surprised to see that lower corruption correlates so well with higher income. Admittedly, I could believe that part of that is a self selecting phenomena - IE, people with money immigrate to non-corrupt places. It may also be that alot of the money that's corrupting the cheap places is flowing from the wealthy ones.

I believe corruption and poverty have a circular cause-effect relationship. Corruption causes poverty (by moving money into the pockets of the corrupt) and prevents people from raising economically, forcing many to become corrupt themselves (when your only option of making middle- or upper-class money are bribes and theft).
Post reply on HN