Financial Transparency Coalition

In 2004 while in a Comparative Politics class, I had a conversation with a friend, who was relatively well-versed in things political, about Freedom House’s Freedom in the World rankings. I remember referring the fact that Russia was considered a “transitional democracy” and he corrected me. “No,” he replied, “Russia is a democracy.” My friend was wrong, of course, but in retrospect that seems much more obvious than it did at the time. In 2004 Russia, with the ranking “Partly Free,” had only just begun its descent into authoritarianism under the direction of Vladamir Putin. It was that...

Everyone knows money is a powerful dissuader. Think of parking tickets. If there were no penalty, most people would be unlikely to feed the machine with a few A variety of activities ranging from smoking to carrying durians is banned on Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit system. quarters. But it’s a small price to pay when the ticket fine is $30 (or $50 if you live in DC). Any Economist will tell you that, by design, compliance with laws is a mix of two important factors. One: the penalty that results if the offender is caught and 2: the probability...

Many people wouldn’t guess it, but corruption is a big challenge for India. The problem isn’t new, but it has recently come under intense international focus. The fuss was sparked by this year’s Commonwealth Games, which are held between former British colonies, and were hosted in Dehli. Ironically, officials had hoped the games would showcase India’s increasing economic and political clout, but instead they were marred by deplorable living conditions for athletes and massive delays in building construction. It was soon revealed the blame for these circumstances could be traced to corruption. The chief of the...

Though Ireland is the European country headlining this week with words like “DEFAULT” and “CONTAGION” looming overhead, let’s not forget that the flames have not yet been completely doused on Greece. To prevent the country from defaulting on its debt, this May the International Monetary Fund and the European Union promised to provide Greece with a €110 billion rescue package. But in the terms of this agreement, Greece was to meet certain deficit goals: including reducing the budget deficit to 7.6% of GDP (earlier this year the IMF estimated the Greek deficit was 8.6 percent in 2009,...