Where Is Corruption Most Prevalent?

Where Is Corruption Most Prevalent?

Corruption is very widespread and, because of its diverse forms, it is extremely difficult,
if not impossible, to measure. Nathanial Heller, Managing Director at Global Integrity,
compares measuring corruption to “trying to measure a black hole. You can’t measure it
because you can’t see it,” he adds.7 Global Integrity, therefore, does not measure
corruption, but rather assesses its opposite. That is, it examines the anti-corruption and
good governance institutions, mechanisms, and practices that are in place. On this
basis, the countries it identified in 2008 as not having these elements and, thus, being at
“serious risk for high-level corruption” included Angola, Belarus, Cambodia, China,
Georgia, Iraq, Montenegro, Morocco, Nicaragua, Serbia, Somalia, the West Bank, and
Yemen.8
And, there are other corruption indices that are commonly referenced and provide a
global picture. Since 1995, Transparency International has published an annual
Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) that ranks the countries of the world according to
“the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and
politicians.” It measures how corruption affects people where they live, such as how
much they might have paid in bribes over a given period, for example. The latest CPI in
2009 draws on 13 different polls and surveys from 10 independent institutions. Countries
with the lowest scores—or the perceived highest levels of corruption—included Somalia,
Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, Iraq, Chad, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Haiti.9
Transparency International notes that “Fragile, unstable states that are scarred by war
and ongoing conflict linger at the bottom of the index…. demonstrate[ing] that countries
which are perceived to have the highest levels of public-sector corruption are also those
plagued by long-standing conflicts, which have torn apart their governance
infrastructure.” Indeed, some of the top states on the list of the Fund for Peace’s Failed
State’s Index10 are the same as those on the CPI, such as Somalia, Sudan, Chad, Iraq,

Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Haiti. Among others, these states show sharp economic
declines, little government legitimacy, a deterioration of public services, and arbitrary
applications of the rule of law.
In many of these cases, systemic corruption exists—that is where corruption has
become a key part of the economic, social, or political order and where the major
institutions of government are captured by corrupt individuals or groups. It’s interesting
to ponder whether corruption like this exists because the state has failed, or whether
corruption among elites has led to state failure. Whichever is the case, the link between
corruption and failed states is a strong one.