Every year Transparency International ranks nearly all countries in the world in its corruption Perceptions index . In 2009 the United States ranked . respectable nineteen out of 180. But within the United States there is considerable fluctuation Anyone who follows national news might make their own U.S. corruption Perceptions Index, with the sheer size of the scandal putt state like Illinois, Louisiana, and New York at the underside and seemingly happy places like Green Mountain State and IN at the top.

News land site The daily Beast conducted such . study for the fifty United States government states. They compiled information on public corruption, racketeering and extortion, forgery and counterfeiting, fraud, and misapplication from 1998 to 2008 and came up with . full ranking. New Hampshire came out on top with the best ratings. Tennessee takes the prize for most corrupt.

Like the CPI, the daily Beast ranking does not give much item on why different states landed where they did, although it does describe a “Recent Scandal” for each state. New Hampshire’s damning story is of two local men who were charged with mail and wire fraud . Some other scandalous account are of hodometer tampering and a woman who stole here? ex-husband’s checkbook and wrote herself $4,100 worth of bank check . There are also some surprises. Land of Lincoln is in fact one of the better-ranking states by the daily Beast’s measure, at number 47 of 51 . Apparently the Blagojevich saga only ran so deep.

Just like the CPI, ranking like the daily Beast’s are better for indentation neighbour against each other than comparing two very disparate entities. My own positive perspective of Vermont was apparently false, as Vermont ranked only 39 against New Hampshire’s crystal-clean number 51. But my home New York can be proud of its 24th place against only 21st for New Jersey. Washington State scraped by Oregon at 38th to 35th. South Carolina can self-praise its 9th place against North Carolina’s 5th. IN wins against Land of Lincoln 49th to 47th.

After the cost-of-living index is published , country representatives request meetings with those who put out the ranking in order to ask how they can move up the ladder Usually they are not looking at to move into the top place, but rather to surpass their main rival: Bulgaria vs. Romania, Algerie vs. Morocco, Lao People’s Democratic Republic vs. Kampuchea Such competition can spark positive action, leading to genuine change in hope of moving up those one or two muscae volitantes Do you think we can generate such positive competition here? Come on New York, you can beat Golden State next year!