Canada Up Two Spots In Transparency Rankings

[scribblet]

Well, look at this, Canada has gone up two spots in the transparency rankings, another reason to be proud...

Last year we ranked second in the Best Country Brand index, getting top ranking for the ‘Best Place to Live’ , ‘Safety’, ‘Family Friendly’,'Tourism’ and ‘Political Freedom’ areas.

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results

[Michael Hardner]

Well, look at this, Canada has gone up two spots in the transparency rankings, another reason to be proud...

Last year we ranked second in the Best Country Brand index, getting top ranking for the ‘Best Place to Live’ , ‘Safety’, ‘Family Friendly’,'Tourism’ and ‘Political Freedom’ areas.

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results

Well, that's encouraging. But I think transparency is a misnomer. We are honest, safe, family friendly but transparent to me means that the processes around decisions affecting the public are highly visible. I don't know how you could measure that, really. And I don't think Canada is great at it. Then again, I live here so I'm biased.

[RNG]

Well, that's encouraging. But I think transparency is a misnomer. We are honest, safe, family friendly but transparent to me means that the processes around decisions affecting the public are highly visible. I don't know how you could measure that, really. And I don't think Canada is great at it. Then again, I live here so I'm biased.

I regularly visit a US politics message board. We are bad, but they are way worse. Faint praise I know, but who knows. Way back when, the early '70's I lived in England. Seemed better there, but maybe it was here too at that time.

[Bryan]

Well, look at this, Canada has gone up two spots in the transparency rankings...

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results

If we go up any higher, we'll be invisible!

[waldo]

Well, look at this, Canada has gone up two spots in the transparency rankings, another reason to be proud...

If we go up any higher, we'll be invisible!

uhhh... any... uhhh... considerations as to what is being ranked, its significance, the supporting methodology or critical review of just what is being ranked - you know, a ranking of the, "degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians" - as measured (perceived) by survey based derived perceptions that result in country order rankings within a Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), where corruption is defined as "the abuse of entrusted power for private gain".

as I interpret, the CPI held particular weight in the early 1990's, particularly as it was one of many driving factors in, ultimately, helping to shape the 2003 UN Convention Against Corruption - with the actual implementation and enforcement of international efforts to curb corruption. If one presumes to put any consideration to these rankings, one particular highlight is what shows through in the regional breakouts... that the European Union and Western Europe is, collectively, well above rank results for all other regional groupings. Certainly that will not sit well with Euro-bashers.

in more recent years, the CPI has increasingly come under scrutiny... a representative example that speaks to "7 failings of the CPI":

The CPI played a central role in influencing the global agenda for anti-corruption reform, raising awareness by shattering the taboo and catapulting the issue of corruption to the forefront of national and international discourse. With the advent of the UN Anti-Corruption Convention in 2003, which marked the culmination of many years’ efforts to produce an armoury of international and regional anti-corruption norms, anti-corruption has firmly entered a very different phase of enforcement and implementation. The immediate goal is no longer simply to raise awareness about the importance of curbing corruption. Nor is it to establish even more comprehensive and stringent international norms. In this latest phase, one to which many newly elected governments are resolutely committed, the CPI in its present form has become counterproductive.

Collectively, the seven failings of the CPI call for a complete reassessment and an overhaul of this influential social indicator. In particular, the CPI needs to be complemented by other indicators to address vital aspects of the subject that a single index can never hope to

capture.

The sixth failing reveals that the CPI is unsuitable to measure trends or even to capture genuine reforms. It should no longer be published in its present form as it actually undermines the efforts of reformers. Short of abandoning it altogether, the CPI should be published at most every four to five years. The country coverage would need to be global. And the country scores should be removed. Transparency International, independently of its views on the utility of corruption-related conditionality in aid or debt relief to poor countries, should publicly distance itself from, and warn aid agencies against, any use of the CPI in such negotiations. The organisation should similarly brief recipient governments that the CPI is unsuitable in this regard.

The challenge ahead is evident: after ten years it is time to find new measurements!

[William Ashley]

I don't beleive these things - much like amnesty international there is a lot of ignorance on the part of these organizations. I see them as little more than uneducated and biased opinions. Sure they do bring light to some issues but so much else is totally ignored.

They are little more than media bandwagon bodies.

Better to have something than nothing but you have to critically analyze the real situations - and I don't think they do nor do they have the network to.

Even governmental organizations can't keep up on this stuff. Or are themselves corrupt. Canada has a lot of corruption. It is very political. But there are a lot of breaches of law that are ignored - a lot of back scratching. Is transparency just a rating of how obvious it is to spot the stuff?

Good to have em but they might as well be called

IgnoranceInternational

Edited October 28, 2010 by William Ashley