transparency international has released their 2012 corruption perceptions index (h/t jayman!).
here are the top 10 least corrupt countries:
and here are the bottom 10, i.e. the most corrupt countries:
not much has changed since last year when the top 3 least corrupt countries were new zealand, denmark and finland — just the ranking a bit (well, actually, they’re all tied for first this year, aren’t they?).
and the most corrupt countries last year: afghanistan, myanmar (or can we say burma again?), north korea and somalia — this year: sudan, afghanistan, north korea and somalia. myanmar improved its ranking to fifth worst.
previously: same old, same old
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hbd chick 
What is your opinion of Singapore, hbdchick?
“or can we say burma again?”
Certainly…..for a price.
@ihtg – “What is your opinion of Singapore, hbdchick?”
i dunno! it’s really like the little state that could, isn’t it?
i don’t know enough about singapore (its history, etc.), but clearly, according to my theory, the place should be pretty corrupt (all the chinese + the other populations living there) — and yet it’s not.
i wondered before if the lack of corruption/functionality of singapore is largely due to (that benevolent dictator) lee kuan yew. he implemented some very smart laws against corruption and general practices to keep corruption levels down (e.g. pay your officials really well). i wonder if singapore’s success is down mostly to lee + a very smart population (self-sorted high iq chinese immigrants) that agreed with lee’s policies.
need to read more about singapore to find out how they managed. you’d think it might be beneficial if other nations adopted their practices — but perhaps you need a high iq population to realize the need for them.
@hbd chick – i don’t know enough about singapore (its history, etc.), but clearly, according to my theory, the place should be pretty corrupt (all the chinese + the other populations living there) — and yet it’s not.
Singapore is the exception to every rule. It is the only country I ever heard of that gained independence when it was thrown out of the country it belonged to, Malaysia, in spite of its desire to remain. It is just one city essentially, so it is easy to control. It is an island and a small one at that. It is a port in an advantageous geographical position, so it naturally gets business from the sea. It was commercially oriented before independence, so there was a local business class and a widespread commercial mentality. It was just a fishing village before the English took it up as a colony, so the whole population at the time of independence consisted of immigrants who self selected to go there and their descendants up to the 5th generation. It inherited British institutions and it did not really have any local institutions to go back to. On top of that it got a benevolent autocrat running the place whose only concern was to make it work. All this started off in a period of global economic development and due to the cold war the US had every reason to keep Singapore safe. This guy Lee Kwan Yew is someone out of Plato’s dreams and he had everything going his way. I doubt if any country on the planet can repeat the experience of Singapore, it is unique.
[…] nice to see all that HBD Chick has been discussing for the past two years in graphical […]
@vasilis – “This guy Lee Kwan Yew is someone out of Plato’s dreams and he had everything going his way.”
yeah, he really sounds pretty extraordinary. and unbelievably insightful about human nature!
@vasilis – “I doubt if any country on the planet can repeat the experience of Singapore, it is unique.”
you’re probably right. the circumstances surrounding singapore were so particular it might be impossible to replicate the outcome. still, it might’ve been good if other “clannish” and/or multicultural populations followed at least some of lee’s methods. might help!
btw — if anyone can recommend a really good book or two on singapore and/or lee, please let me know! (^_^)
@HBD Chick:
” i wonder if singapore’s success is down mostly to lee + a very smart population (self-sorted high iq chinese immigrants) that agreed with lee’s policies.”
My money is on self-sorting.
Imagine trying to replicate the Singapore experiment. Assuming you had to choose a certain number of people from all different parts of the world (and not just from one place), who would you chose have?
It’s worth noting that Hong Kong has had 15 years of regressed-to-the-mean leadership, but it otherwise has a lot in common with Singapore.
Fear not, diversophiles: New Zealand is doing its best to change its shameful record on corruption with the help of refugees fleeing from just (about) across the border (or one of them — NZ is lucky to have many borders with centres of vibrancy):
Somali refugees who came to New Zealand in the 1990s, fleeing civil war, drought and famine, were the first black Africans to settle in New Zealand in significant numbers.
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/refugees/4/5
What could be more sensible in terms of issues around raising the low vibration levels historically prevailing in terms of NZ’s pale and stale society?
Assuming you had to choose a certain number of people from all different parts of the world (and not just from one place), who would you chose have?
Racist!
@jayman – “My money is on self-sorting.”
yes, that was very important, i think. crucial. self-sorting of high iq folks — and, i forgot to mention, of course the fact that east asians have had the adhd genes knocked out of them (a la cochran & harpending), so the chinese in singapore are prolly much more likely to be happy to abide by lee’s rules than, say, italians. or the yanomamo.
@christopher – “It’s worth noting that Hong Kong has had 15 years of regressed-to-the-mean leadership, but it otherwise has a lot in common with Singapore.”
prolly more self-sorting there, no? high iq individuals who have moved there to make a success of themselves?
(love your avatar, btw! (^_^) )
@candid k9 – “What could be more sensible in terms of issues around raising the low vibration levels historically prevailing in terms of NZ’s pale and stale society?”
and what could be more moral of you?! (~_^)
Corruption or perception of corruption. Canada is perceived as being honest but in reality is horribly corrupt. Try living here for a few years and you will see what I mean. Yes by global standards we have a good standard of living and there are many kind and charitable people, but Canada is extremely corrupt. A more accurate way to calculate corruption in the West which is the only zone in the world with relatively accurate crime stats would be to do a comparative crime index analysis. How does Canadian crime compare with Swiss for example. Unless one believes that criminality is solely the preserve of the underclass the crime rates would give a more accurate picture, even if there were not criminal prosecutions. The USA is a prime example. They have high robbery violent crime rate. Thus we all presume that they are also corrupt, which they are. Likewise Canada’s crime rate is no doubt higher than many of the Scandinavian countries listed. We have done a good PR job.
[…] by the State – directed the evolution of the Japanese (and perhaps similarly in Korea, etc). Singapore and the anti-corruption measures enacted there may be a window into this process. If corruption and clannishness no longer “pay”, then […]