
Corruption Perceptions Index 2013 - lostbit
http://www.transparency.org/cpi2013/results
======
iandanforth
If you're a cynic then the key goes from cheap (dark colored countries) to
expensive (lighter colored countries) corruption.

~~~
carlob
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](http://imgur.com/Ld0bXTO)

With names: [http://imgur.com/vX7dsTV](http://imgur.com/vX7dsTV)

~~~
araes
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.

~~~
carlob
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.

~~~
araes
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.

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3pt14159
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.

~~~
randomafrican
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..

~~~
3pt14159
I wasn't just in Santiago, I hit Valparaiso, Pichilemu, some small towns I
cannot remember near the mountains and the sea.

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calibraxis
This appears goofy.

 _" The 2012 CPI draws on 13 different surveys and assessments from 12
different institutions. The institutions are the African Development Bank, the
Bertelsmann Foundation, the Economist Intelligence Unit, Freedom House, Global
Insight, International Institute for Management Development, Political and
Economic Risk Consultancy, Political Risk Services, the World Economic Forum,
the World Bank and the World Justice Project."_
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index))

Alex Cobham's Foreign Policy article explains it reflects _" the opinions of
an internationally focused elite, typically from a corporate background and
perhaps a similar education"_. Preferable are alternatives where _" a group of
a country's citizens are considered instead of restricting the view to elite
perceptions only"_.
([http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/07/22/corrupting_...](http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/07/22/corrupting_perceptions))

~~~
randomafrican
I was about to argue that institutions like Freedom House are ideologically
biased but then I realized that each of the institutions have very different
biases.

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randomafrican
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 ?

~~~
willvarfar
Re north Korea, it has an endemic amount of tolerated black market. There have
been numerous articles on it.

~~~
randomafrican
Ok but is it similar to the Black Market that existed in the 80's in the USSR
or closer to the late 90's in Cuba ?

If it's the first case, it's argue that the most corrupt rank isn't deserved.
If it's the latter, we're getting close but we're still far from places like
Guinea-Bissau.

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sam66
A lawyer is posting an open letter (plea) asking the king of Saudi Arabic to
stop the theft of millions by a Saudi billionaire, yet no western media outlet
dares to write about one of the most corrupt states here.(Arabic) link to the
desperate plea
[http://www.alweeam.com.sa/259063/%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%B7-%D...](http://www.alweeam.com.sa/259063/%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%B7-%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%88%D9%82%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%AF-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%8A/)

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mathgladiator
Makes me want to move the denmark :)

~~~
throwaway_yy2Di
One day, there will be a Danish startup on "Who's hiring".

~~~
busterarm
You might have to wait a while. Denmark has a very strong "nobody ever got
fired contracting IBM" business culture. There are one or two consultancies in
Copenhagen that I'm aware of that my friends work at and could recommend. Most
startups there seem to be design outfits. I'm told incorporating there is hard
but didn't seem so to me from the requirements I read - you just need a lot of
money available at the outset just to employ anyone (that's a positive, imo).

Anyway, there's starting to be some changes there - IBM missed a big contract
or two with large clients to smaller outfits. Between that shift and the
quality grads coming out of DTU, there may be some tech opportunities there if
anyone starts investing money that way.

I would _love_ to go work over there but I doubt I could meet the requirements
and I'm not lucky enough to have an EU citizenship.

~~~
rasmuskl
There's lots of cool start-up culture in Denmark. (Podio, Zendesk, Zyb, etc)

While the system isn't always too kind to start-ups (high tax etc) they still
do exist.

I've been working as a developer in Denmark for 7 years now (currently
Xamarin) and haven't had a problem finding interesting projects.

~~~
workhere-io
_While the system isn 't always too kind to start-ups (high tax etc)_

Actually, apart from high personal income tax, Denmark is one of the most
business-friendly countries in the world.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7391268](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7391268)

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jnbiche
As others here have noted, this doesn't seem to be measuring corruption.
Instead, and after reading their meager "methodology" (we compile these
results from "international elite"), it appears that what this is measuring
instead is a country's business friendliness.

And that's a fine thing to measure, but don't call it "corruption". It does a
disservice to us in fundamentally corrupt yet business-friendly countries.

~~~
bduerst
It's the Corruption _Perception_ Index, not the _Absolute_ Corruption Index.

Debate the semantics of the word "corruption" as much as you want, but the
index is found to have a strong correlation with black market activity and an
"overabundance of regulation or unnecessary restriction of business activity".
[1]

That doesn't sound like the countries are business friendly to me.

[1]
[http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1013882225402](http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1013882225402)

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acconrad
This is a really annoying UX, I can't even tell who the top five countries are
because the hover-overs overflow above the visible area of the map.

~~~
eCa
Yes, but it's zoomable.

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sogen
Wow, Mexico sharing ranks along Nigeria, Kosovo and Ethiopia. Not surprised.

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seivan
I am sure a lot of people will not agree with me here. But I feel Sweden is
more corrupt than it appears.
[http://sloseriombudsmannen.se](http://sloseriombudsmannen.se)

~~~
tete
I (never living in either) feel like US is way more corrupt than Germany,
France, ...

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sam66
I can not see how Saudi Arabia got that far,corruption is sucking billions
there yet it ranks higher than many other countries.

~~~
marcosdumay
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.

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epmatsw
Interesting 3 way tie for last place between Somalia, North Korea, and
Afghanistan.

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minimax
The map of North America looks a little funny without the Great Lakes drawn
in.

