Corruption is essentially a function of Core-ness in the “Pentagon’s New Map”
ARTICLE: “Oil, Cash and Corruption: How Influence Flowed Through Political Pipelines,” by Ron Stodghill, New York Times, 5 November 2006, p. BU1.Transparency International’s “corruption perceptions index 2005” matches up very nicely with the PNM’s mapping of the world.
Basically, it’s the Old Core of the West and Japan that are the least corrupt, the New Core pillars that are more corrupt, and the Gap that is--on average--the most corrupt.
Bush says kleptocracy is an obstacle to democracy, but it’s a natural aspect to market adolescence, and the reality is that you need to develop your way past that adolescence before you’re likely to head into democracy anyway.
As I’ve noted many times, the states most reliant on the exporting of one or two raw materials, especially energy, tend to be the most corrupt and the most authoritarian. Anything that easy to control gets over-controlled, even though that approach remains the slowest way to grow an economy. So getting out of the Gap is first and foremost a function of getting FDI that diversifies your economic base.
But yeah, corruption scares that money off, which is why the Gap ain’t going away without some real effort.