How to Fight Corruption: A super-free economy and an exceptionally generous social safety net.

• Author: Bailey, Norman A.

It is universally recognized that private and public corruption has proliferated in recent decades. A large bibliography of books, articles, and studies have analyzed this phenomenon from various standpoints, in the face of the unfortunate fact that credible data is missing, for obvious reasons--those who engage in corrupt business practices do not report them to the authorities. Indeed, the lack of data about corruption means that the official statistics of many countries are seriously incomplete. From the standpoint of the political, social, and cultural development of contemporary society, the prevalence of corruption at every level of society and throughout government--the executive, legislative, and judicial authorities, the bureaucracy and the law enforcement agencies--means that public perception of official behavior has undergone a serious decline.

The activities of criminal syndicates, often in association with terrorist and other extremist organizations, permeate all levels of society, especially since the prosperity of such criminal actors enables them to buy or coerce the cooperation of many of the otherwise respectable sectors of society. These include professional organizations (law firms, accounting firms, public relations firms, and others), financial institutions, business entities of all types, high-tech companies, and even non-governmental organizations, thereby spreading infection throughout society.

There is, however, great disparity among the countries of the world as to how corrupt they are. According to four rankings of corruption, there is remarkable agreement on which are the five least-corrupt countries.

Four countries are in every list: Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, and Finland, although not always in that order. Three of the indices list Singapore in the fifth place; one lists Singapore tied with Sweden, and one lists Sweden alone.

What are the elements that these five countries have in common? Well, many things: They are all relatively small in size and population, ranging from 148,729 square miles in the case of Finland to 283 square miles in the case of Singapore. All five of the countries have populations between five and six million people.

All but Singapore are relatively homogenous in their ethnic makeup and religious observance. But all are religiously tolerant.

All are relatively wealthy, with GDP in purchasing power parity terms ranging from US$261 billion in New Zealand to $702 billion in Singapore...