[EL] Study ranks states on corruption

[Dan Meek]

The methodology of the study is backwards.  It measures corruption by 
the number of convictions in each state for corruption-type offenses:

    "The report provides the number of federal, state, and local public
    officials convicted of a corruption-related crime across the states."

That is not a measure of corruption; it is a measure of corruption 
_fighting_.

These sorts of studies (including this one) nearly always find that 
Oregon is not very corrupt.  But Oregon has no limits on campaign 
contributions, for example.  So a corporate contribution of $1 million 
(or any amount) to any candidate here is legal.  The same contribution 
in most other states would be illegal and would be categorized as a 
corruption-type offense.  This study concludes that the lack of such law 
makes Oregon less corrupt.

The study makes no sense.  It is like saying that, if murder was legal 
in Michigan, then Detroit would be the safest city in America.  After 
all, there would be zero convictions for murder there, if murder were legal.

The Center for Public Integrity/PRI corruption study has a better 
methodology.  See http://www.stateintegrity.org.  It ranked New Jersey 
as the top state in fighting corruption.  The new study ranks it 31.  
The CPI/PRI study has this top 10.  The number in parenthesis is the 
state's ranking in the new study.  Note in particular New Jersey, 
Mississippi, and Tennessee.

  *
    <http://www.stateintegrity.org/new_jersey>
    1st New Jersey  (31) <http://www.stateintegrity.org/new_jersey>
  *
    <http://www.stateintegrity.org/connecticut>
    2ndConnecticut  (22) <http://www.stateintegrity.org/connecticut>
  *
    <http://www.stateintegrity.org/washington>
    3rdWashington  (2) <http://www.stateintegrity.org/washington>
  *
    <http://www.stateintegrity.org/california>
    4thCalifornia  (20) <http://www.stateintegrity.org/california>
  *
    <http://www.stateintegrity.org/nebraska>
    5thNebraska (7) <http://www.stateintegrity.org/nebraska>
  *
    <http://www.stateintegrity.org/mississippi>
    6thMississippi (49) <http://www.stateintegrity.org/mississippi>
  *
    <http://www.stateintegrity.org/iowa>
    7thIowa  (6) <http://www.stateintegrity.org/iowa>
  *
    <http://www.stateintegrity.org/tennessee>
    8thTennessee  (45) <http://www.stateintegrity.org/tennessee>
  *
    <http://www.stateintegrity.org/rhode_island>
    9thRhode Island  (24) <http://www.stateintegrity.org/rhode_island>
  *
    <http://www.stateintegrity.org/kansas>
    10thKansas (11) <http://www.stateintegrity.org/kansas>

The new study has this top 10, with the CPI/PRI ranking in parenthesis.  
Note the differences for Oregon, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Utah, 
Colorado, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

 1. Oregon  (14)
 2. Washington (2)
 3. Minnesota (25)
 4. New Hampshire  (35)
 5. Utah  (36)
 6. Iowa (7)
 7. Nebraska (5)
 8. Colorado (33)
 9. Vermont (26)
10. Wisconsin (24)


Dan Meek

	503-293-9021 	dan at meek.net <mailto:dan at meek.net>	866-926-9646 fax



On 6/17/2014 8:34 AM, Sean Parnell wrote:

Ran across this study, purporting to rank all 50 US states (but not DC, 
it looks like) by how corrupt they are: 
http://www.policymic.com/articles/90963/the-10-most-and-10-least-corrupt-states-in-america

I'm not going to vouch for the findings, just thought it was interesting 
given how often we talk here about eliminating or curbing corruption. 
I'd note that the findings don't seem to correlate especially closely 
with either the campaign finance 'reform' or deregulation concepts of 
what either side might think would lead to a more or less corrupt 
political system, at least not at first glance -- someone could probably 
do a closer analysis than I have time for and see if there's anything 
beyond a weak correlation.

Sean Parnell

President

Impact Policy Management, LLC

6411 Caleb Court

Alexandria, VA  22315

571-289-1374 (c)

sean at impactpolicymanagement.com



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