An interview in El País (26th June) with political scientist Fernando Jiménez, an authority on political scandals, focuses mainly on the recent scandal of the fall of the new Madrid government. But more generally, Jiménez points us to Transparency International, an ONG which, in its own words, “works at both the national and international level to curb both the supply and demand of corruption”. TI records perceptions of corruption among a country’s elite and, Jiménez explains, offers no more than an estimate – but it’s an interesting one. Each year, TI produces an annual report (pdf file) which includes a “Corruption Perceptions Index”: in 2002, Finland is the cleanest country on the 102-strong list, with Bangladesh down at the bottom. Spain is 20th, along with Belgium and Japan, making it, in Jiménez's words, moderately corrupt; FYI, the UK.’s at No. 10, and the U.S. stands at No. 16. For Spain, this is an improvement on seven or eight years ago, when the spate of PSOE scandals pushed the country down, but Jiménez (speaking, remember, in El País) believes that things have not really changed since then – the only significant anti-corruption reform over that time has been the creation of an anti-corruption office, which has had only limited impact at local level. Jiménez points to party financing as the black hole of democracy, and assures us that it will eventually raise its head at the bottom of the Tamayo/Saéz affair, which is still keeping the commentators busy.
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