cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47165348
I noticed many people believe, that Western countries ranking low on corruption indexes, shows they aren’t corrupt as hell.
To me this just means it’s at a higher, much harder to prove level.
Instead of starting at the cop level (which is still possible with connections), it starts at the points where multi-millions can be made without anyone really noticing.
E.g. farm land > residential use, construction projects, sale of government properties, favors for corps etc.


Note that very few countries have what is considered a low level of corruption (which they seem to define as 80+). Additionally, they note that corruption is increasing in many of these “western” countries, like the United States, Canada, France, and the UK.
But these indexes generally aren’t very helpful, as I have highlighted in my comments. There’s a lot of criticism on these kinds of indexes that generalise these big issues.