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Xatolos @reddthat.com

The U.S. just hit its lowest score ever on an international corruption measure

AI summary:

  • Transparency International released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking the United States 28th out of 180 countries for anti-corruption efforts.
  • The U.S. received its lowest-ever score of 65 out of 100, indicating concerns about public sector corruption, including bribery and misuse of public office.
  • Denmark, Finland, and Singapore were the top-ranked countries, while South Sudan ranked the lowest.
  • Recent changes to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by the Trump administration, which paused enforcement to aid U.S. companies in international business, did not affect the latest index as it only covers data through 2024.
  • Transparency International emphasizes the importance of tackling corruption to combat authoritarianism and protect human rights.
  • The report highlights that only 32 countries have improved their anti-corruption efforts since 2012, with 148 countries either remaining the same or worsening.
21 comments

  • In all fairness, it's a Corruption Perception Index, so this doesn't mean that Corruption before wasn't horribly bad, just that people did not perceive it so.

    It's not by chance that this index has the curious effect that when the Justice System in a country starts cracking down on Corruption that country's position on this index gets worse (probably because there are a lot more news about corrupt people being arrested during such a crack down, hence the perception of corruption goes up).

    Judging by how these things are managed in the UK, the secret to look good on the index is for the Justice System to not even investigate allegations of Corruption (much less prosecute and convict) so officially there is no Corruption and if the Press ever publishes articles about Corruption they get sued for Defamation by the Corrupt and lose since the de facto Corrupt have never been convicted hence are not de jure so and in the eyes of the Law cannot be publicity said to be Corrupt, so the Press never points out Corruption and people tend to think everything is squeaky clean (mind you, this doesn't work in countries with lots of low level corruption - say, coppers demanding money for not seeing traffic infractions - because low level corruption is evident in day to day life whilst high level Corruption is not).

    I suspect that the Perception of Corruption has been managed in the US in s similar way to how it's managed in the UK.

    Mind you, I'm not saying the US isn't even more Corrupt now than before, only that the perception of it probably severely underestimated the reality (and quite likely still does).

21 comments