Is corruption correlated with the development of a country?

1. 61

   ramkkasturiposted 14 years ago

   Is corruption correlated with the  development of a country?
   
   The general belief is that developing countries are more corrupt than developed countries? Is this true? How is corruption measured and ranked?

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2. 60

   DavitosanXposted 14 years ago

   I'm not sure how corruption is measured, but it's a fact that it hinders a country's development.

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3. 60

   dabeanerposted 14 years ago

   I seem to recall seeing some years ago a reference to a site that ranked countries -- but unfortunately I don't recall it.  It may probably take a lot of search engine searching.
   
   I would look at sites like von Mises Institute and other "Austrian Economics", libertarian, and hard money (gold money) sites for possible leads.
   
   Yes, developing countries are more corrupt.  But the developed ones are hard at work to close the gap (a race to the bottom).
   
   BTW, ask why developing countries are forever developing.  After all, most are (or were) rich in resources.  It is their cultures and religions that have held them back.
   
   Consider the western hemisphere (the Americas).  Both the United States and Argentina were similarly wealthy in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Argentina was Catholic.  The U.S. was Protestant.  And, in addition, the U.S. culture was Calvinistic.

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4. 80

   Wayne Brownposted 14 years ago

   Suffice to say that greed is a characteristic of the human race in general, thus, as a country develops and discovers more of its national resources, there are certainly those who will work to get into high places and skim off a portion of the proceeds.  In an authoritarian state such as Iraq under Hussein, that might be relatively easy to do.  In a more democratic transparent process, hopefully there are checks and balances that keep the system reasonably honest.  WB

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