Index Shows Perception of US Corruption Growing

(Oct. 26) -- Is corruption getting worse in the United States?

That may seem the takeaway from this year's Corruption Perceptions Index from Berlin-based Transparency International, which saw the U.S. 2010 ranking slip to 22nd out of 178 nations from 19th last year -- the first time the United States has missed inclusion in the top 20 least-corrupt countries since the index was launched 15 years ago.

Rising past the U.S. over the year were the tiny Caribbean island nation of Barbados (now 17th), the Persian Gulf emirate Qatar (19th) and Chile (21st). New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore -- ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 3 last year -- tied for first place in 2010.

At 22nd, the U.S. is now tied with Belgium, a country known among fellow Western Europeans for a dysfunctional political system that has been unable to produce a governing coalition since April, and took more than nine months to do so after the last election in March 2007.

But this isn't because Americans are more subject to rampant bribery, extortionate government contract practices or the host of crooked schemes that affect personal and public life on a daily basis in much of the world. (Three-quarters of the 178 nations in the index scored below five on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the cleanest. The U.S. score was 7.1, down from 7.5 last year.)

Rather, the worsening perception of U.S. corruption seems due to the financial crisis that has shaken American lives, meshed with financial scandals that have dominated headlines over the past decade.

"When you think about the last several years, there have been running trends, scandals like Enron and WorldCom, Bernie Madoff ... a wide variety of scandals that are both illegal, corrupt in the legal sense, and corrupt legal acts," said Nancy Boswell, the president of Transparency International-USA. "There has been a general sense coming out of the crisis that people have lost their jobs, are underwater on mortgages. Maybe some of what went on is legal, but it seems like ethics and integrity took a back seat."

Transparency International, a global network of groups that doesn't investigate alleged corruption but works with organizations that do and campaigns for tougher laws and enforcement, compiles its index from surveys conducted by international nongovernmental organizations like the World Bank and private research from the likes of the Economist Intelligence Unit and the World Economic Forum.

It defines corruption as "the abuse of entrusted power for private gain."

By that standard, the past year of headline-making investigations into Wall Street practices and associated government lapses has brought to light a narrative of unbridled greed that has undermined confidence in public institutions and stoked perceptions of corruption here.

Another factor, Boswell noted, is the increasingly unrestrained and covert role of private money in the political system -- especially since the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in January, which former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor criticized as a threat to judicial independence and checks on campaign spending.

"There is a perception in the American public that the system is broken," Boswell said. "There's no one reason, but there's a myriad of reasons that come together."

Transparency International uses the perception index because corruption "is to a great extent a hidden activity that is difficult to measure," the group said. "Over time, perceptions have proved to be a reliable estimate of corruption. Measuring scandals, investigations or prosecutions, while offering 'nonperception' data, reflect less on the prevalence of corruption in a country and more on other factors, such as freedom of the press or the efficiency of the judicial system."

And that's the irony of the declining U.S. ranking.

Alleged corruption comes to light more in the United States, but the country still has a better record tackling bribery, both at home and abroad, than countries like Germany (15th) that rank higher.

"Bribes are paid by countries all over the world to do business," Boswell said. "U.S. enforcement is far more vigorous than anywhere else in the world."

Perceptions of corruption here rely on "our own sense of ourselves, and I think we have a pretty high standard," she added. "It's a wake-up call to the public and private sector that we need to make ethics and integrity more of a core value in the way we do business and remember that just because it's legal doesn't make it the right thing to do."

The top 25 least-corrupt countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index 2010:
1. Denmark
1. New Zealand
1. Singapore
4. Finland
4. Sweden
6. Canada
7. Netherlands
8. Australia
8. Switzerland
10. Norway
11. Iceland
11. Luxembourg
13. Hong Kong
14. Ireland
15. Austria
15. Germany
17. Barbados
17. Japan
19. Qatar
20. United Kingdom
21. Chile
22. Belgium
22. United States
24. Uruguay
25. France

The bottom 25:
154. Cambodia
154. Central African Republica
154. Comoros
154. Congo-Brazzaville
154. Guinea-Bissau
154. Kenya
154. Laos
154. Papua New Guinea
154. Russia
154. Tajikistan
164. Democratic Republic of Congo
164. Guinea
164. Kyrgyzstan
164. Venezuela
168. Angola
168. Equatorial Guinea
170. Burundi
171. Chad
172. Sudan
172. Turkmenistan
172. Uzbekistan
175. Iraq
176. Afghanistan
176. Myanmar
178. Somalia