Have you ever wondered why corruption seems to be less prevalent in “wealthy” countries?
Ever considered that perhaps developed countries face only invisible corruption (e.g., organizational corruption, tax havens, corrupt politicians), and corruption is less felt in everyday life by ordinary citizens?
Sure, petty/administrative corruption could be rather low in these countries because it is not socially accepted (it doesn’t mean it does not exist).
But studies and enforcement actions have also shown that multinationals of these strong export nations (with low amounts of perceived national corruption) are more likely to pay bribes abroad in developing countries.
Therefore, wealthier countries might engage in foreign corruption (that stays mostly invisible for the domestic population) rather than domestic corruption, and in turn, “experts” responsible for ranking countries on corruption indices may be less aware about the foreign corruption that their domestic multinationals and compatriots engage in.
On the other hand, less developed nations often suffer from petty corruption, corruption of powerful elites, and organizational corruption.
The corruption of elites, and administrative corruption are often painfully visible to the public and an open secret.
Because the “visible” corruption is so much greater, it could influence the higher perception of corruption by the measuring experts.
Let’s keep an open mind…