How Islands of Honesty Can Crush a System of Corruption

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How ‘Islands of Honesty’ Can Crush a System of Corruption

By AMANDA TAUB - The Interpreter - DEC. 9, 2016

For over a year, a global mystery has been growing: Why are so many governments around the world collapsing amid corruption scandals?

Attention is now focused on South Korea, where the Parliament voted Friday to impeach President Park Geun-hye. The allegations against Ms. Park are unique in their colorful details — a mysterious adviser, Choi Soon-sil, is suspected of having secretly influenced Ms. Park's public speeches and decision-making while also extorting millions from major corporations.

But beneath the salacious specifics, the story is familiar: a corruption scandal rocks a nation, reaching the highest levels of government and provoking a political crisis.

It has been a common tale in recent years. In Brazil, for instance, the so-called carwash scandal implicated much of the country’s governing class and led to the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff in August. South Africa seems to be heading in the same direction after it was revealed that President Jacob Zuma misused public funds, prompting calls for his ouster. In 2015, Guatemala’s government collapsed after investigators for the United Nations said that President Otto Pérez Molina and Roxana Baldetti, his vice president, had been involved in a bribery scheme. And in Argentina, former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and four officials from her party were indicted in August on corruption charges.

The cavalcade of scandals can make it seem like the world’s politicians have suddenly become greedier en masse....

Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/world/asia/south-korea-brazil-argentina-impeachment.html

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1. I hate to say it,

but we've joined in the trend.