Global Integrity Index: looking around the black box of corruption

A couple of days ago, Global Integrity launched its Global Integrity Index 2008, which assesses whether or not key national anti-corruption mechanisms are set in place, work properly and are accessible to citizens to hold governments accountable. 

Different from other governance measurements, this index and the scorecard doesn't try looking into the black box of corruption or the perceptions about it.  Instead, the approach is to look at the inputs and outputs coming in and out of the box, trying to show the difference between de jure and de facto institutional realities of countries and how political economy dynamics within them matter.

Among its main findings, this year's report shows that poor regulation over political financing is still the most important governance challenge around the world, regardless of the level of income or development in each country.  In our previous entry, Dani Kaufmann blogged also on this issue and others related, such as lobbying, conflict of interest and capture, and called for political reforms within the context of the current financial and economic crisis.

On similar concerns, although more focused on the dynamics within the public sector, the Global Integrity Report highlights a "Grand Corruption Watch List," based on three redflags on possible triggers of grand corruption, such as: "extremely poor conflicts of interest safeguards in government, weak oversight over large state-owned enterprises, and poor or non-existent controls over the flow of money into the political process."

Besides the report's content, if you have time take a look at the Gloogle maps mashup through which Global Integrity also presents its index this year.