Corruptos

Every time Transparency International publishes their naughty-and-nice list those of us on the fringes of policy-wonkdom feel obligated to comment.  Mexico is still about the middle of the pack, using parameters originally set up by Arthur Andersen Consulting (remember them?).

The only use I’ve ever found for the TI “Corruptions Perception Index” is when dealing with the uninformed people who tell me that Mexico is the most corrupt nation of earth (er, that would be Afghanistan), or at least in the Americas (nah… not even close).

Since the measurement is “perception”, it’s no surprise that the least corrupt (or perceived as corrupt) nations are the most homogeneous ones with the small discrepancy in wealth, and the most corrupt are those where there’s a sense that “thems that gots” didn’t get that way licitly, and where there are wide variations among people and their collective perceptions.

Secondly, given what is measured as “corruption”, practices that might be considered corrupt in one place (say, corporate financing of elections… or the existence of corporations as “persons” at all) are not considered corrupting in others, and aren’t even measured.

Third, there’s a perception that Transparency International is … shall we say… “influenced”… by outside factors (although you may think it, I would never use the word “corrupted”  — so harsh a term) like political acceptance by the financial powers that be.  As Otto notes, in connection with TI’s claims a few years back of wide-spread “corruption” in the Venezuelan state oil company:

… they repeatedly slammed Venezuela’s PDVSA for not publishing its annual earnings and financials when in fact the company did … It just showed TI for what it is; a biased, agenda-ridden organization that chooses its facts to fit the pre-conceived results and can’t be bothered to do the kind of investigation that’s needed for reliable stats work.

In other words, at most the “perceptions index” might be useful in bringing attention to specific issues (the need for timely financial reports at the Venezuelan state oil company, or — in Mexico — simplifying the procedures for release of public documents), but as a “my country’s better than yours” kind of thing, it’s meaningless.

And that’s all I’m going to say about it.