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New Data Shows 85% of Humans Live Under a Corrupt Government (newatlas.com)
schwit1 writes: According to one think tank that studies corruption in government, 85% of the world lives under governments that are essentially corrupt. New Atlas reports: "'Corruption' is defined by Transparency International (TI) as 'the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.' Each year since 1995, TI has published a Corruption Perceptions Index that scores the world's nations out of 100 for their public sector honesty and the just-released 2016 report paints the same bleak picture we've been seeing now for two decades except it's getting worse. According to the data, despite the illusion of elected government in half the world's countries, democracy is losing. Only two countries scored 90 out of 100 this year, and just 54 of the 176 countries (30%) assessed in the report scored better than 50. Fifty percent might have constituted a pass in a High School arithmetic test, but for an elected government to be so inept at carrying out the will of the electorate, it is a clear betrayal of the people. The average country score this year is a paltry 43, indicating endemic corruption in a country's public sector is the norm. Even more damning is that more countries declined than improved in this year's results. Our analysis of TI's data shows 85 percent of human beings are governed by regimes that score 50 or less, indicating that the integrity of people in authority across the globe remains sadly lacking." schwit1 notes: "Not surprisingly, the countries at the bottom of the list are almost all Middle Eastern nations, all of whom are the source of most of the world's terrorism and Islamic madness. The few others are those trying to become communist paradises, Venezuela and North Korea." New Atlas also mentions "the latest update of the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, released on the same day as the Transparency International report, reflects an almost identical perspective. The EIU Democracy Index measures the state of democracy in 167 countries and the average global score fell from 5.55 out of 10 in 2015 to 5.52 in 2016, with 72 countries recording a lower score versus 38 which showed an improvement. You can register for free and download the EIU report here."
Nice editorializing at the end there. You may want to mention that the least-corrupt countries on the list are Nordic states (and New Zealand) with strong social welfare systems and high taxes.
I see you're blaming Trump for the government's behavior in 2016. Typical leftist logic.
FYI, Trump took office in Jan 2017. Obama was the president for all of 2016.
According to the report they degraded the USA from "full democracy" to "flawed democracy" in 2016
Well then, they're morons because the USA has never been a 'full democracy'. Once everything shook out after the revolution, the USA was a democratic republic.
Institutions like the Electoral College were meant to be a check against the stupidity of the masses that might elect a Trump. But idiots clamored for more power by virtue of their numbers. So state governments neutered their own congressional delegations by requiring that they vote for the popular choice.
The result? Trump. And people clamoring for more democracy.
I suspect that if you had a time machine and could gather data from every era of human history, you'd find that this '85%' they speak of is probably fairly consistent.
Free and open societies (which must by necessity be relatively non-corrupt to become and remain free & open societies) are not and have not been the norm throughout history. That 85% is on the low side historically speaking.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
The system is as it is precisely to make it possible for a president to be elected where the majority of people don't want him.
If you are claiming that that is not really a significant possibility, then you should have no problem going to a straight popular vote. If you object to a straight popular vote, then it means that you believe such a vote would generate different results.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
"Trump was also an upset for the established crop of power-holders, and THAT is the unusual result."
Correction: "Trump was also an upset for the established crop of non-billionaire power-holders, and THAT is the unusual result."
Now the billionaires control the political offices directly and cut out the middle men... before they had to pay people to do their bidding.
Yipeee!!!!!
Trump claiming to "Drain the swamp" is more of those "alternative facts"
You fucking idiot, don't you know Lincoln was an evil tyrant who began the tradition of the imperial presidency, waged war against his own people, jailed dissidents without trial, and spied on everyone's communications? Lincoln was the worst American dictator in history. "But slavery!" you whine. Lincoln didn't give a shit about slavery one way or the other, he said so on many occasions.
Some people just don't understand that the social and economic systems practiced in small countries do not scale. Even in the US the policies that work in places like Vermont will not work in places such as California. And what is more interesting is that the relatively small countries claiming to operate superior social and economic systems all rely on someone else to guarantee their security when world conflicts intrude upon their ideal societies.
Finland and Sweden are not NATO members.
IMO, The main problem is not the number of people or geography. Look you may think you have vast difference between texan and new yorker, but when you scratch the paint a bit, you are much more alike than you think - at least for the big cities, outside differences are much more pronounced. If I compare, say to the difference between Germany and France in culture, habits, politics etc - even ignoring languages....
No the great split you have is not geographical, it is political. Your great national disunity is manufactured by the 2 political parties, which kept playing the people until there is an enormous divide between a democrat and republican neighbors. And then they play the american on that desunity like a fiddle on regular basis, and you bite it hook and sinker.