Strains of sleaze

摘要

Who judges the judges? Transparency International's annual corruption index (see chart) ranks governments around the world for their honesty or lack of it. But how much weight does the survey, based on the views of businessmen and other country experts, deserve? Few would quibble with the outlines. The most corrupt countries are the poorest, and the cleanest are the richest. Those who know Haiti do not doubt that it deserves to be somewhere near the bottom; Finland, Iceland and New Zealand are plausible candidates for the top (though both Singapore and Denmark are in effect there too).