Over the past year, a new survey by the Transparency International found that American adults believe corruption has increased in the United States, with the White House being the most corrupt government institution. The results are bad news, with one exception: the vast majority of the public still believes that they can make a difference on corruption, a viewpoint that we at Sunlight also share. Here are six ways to make progress.
Continue readingGUIDE: How to use open data to fight corruption
The Open Data Charter's new guide to using open data to combat corruption was designed to be a practical tool for governments. With the right conditions in place, greater transparency can lead to more accountability, less corruption and better outcomes for the public.
Continue readingIs OGP vouching for Hungary?
Is OGP vouching for Hungary’s ability to strengthen democracies, even as it clearly works to undermine its own?
Continue readingSnap Shot Hungary: The connection between messy political funding and the rise of the illiberal state
Recent radicalization of Hungarian politics can partly be traced back to the country's messy political funding regime, and might be a warning sign that transparent political funding is a necessary condition for a healthy political ecosystem.
Continue readingSnap Shot Georgia: From closed-door corruption to open data
Take an inside look at this former Soviet state's anti-corruption comeback and how it has affected political responsiveness and integrity in election financing.
Continue readingRomanian parliament exempts itself from anti-corruption laws
In early December, the Romanian parliament passed amendments to the country's criminal code that make certain public officials exempt from corruption charges, including bribery, conflicts of interests, and abuse of office.
Continue readingCrowdsourcing to Fight Corruption: Aleksei Navalny and the RosPil Experiment
A few weeks ago, Russia’s most popular and controversial opposition figure, anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny, was tossed in prison on charges of conspiring to steal money from a state owned lumber corporation -- only to be set free less than a day later pending action from a higher court. The shocking turn of events has once again thrust Navalny and his campaign against public sector corruption into the global limelight. While Navalny’s legal future may occupy the headlines, we wanted to focus on Navalny’s anti-corruption website RosPil, a state procurement monitoring site where troves of government contracts and tenders are scrutinized by eager volunteers searching for signs of corruption.
Corruption is an enormous political and economic problem in Russia. Most of the corruption, which effectively cuts the country’s growth rate in half according to economists Sergey Guriyev and Oleg Tsyvinsky, is tied up in the government's procurement system. Former President Medvedev’s administration suggested that upwards of 1 trillion rubles are embezzled through the state acquisition process every year. It is this rampant corruption that Aleksei Navalny, who is well known for his brand of tech-empowered protest, is trying to stamp out. Continue readingUS Russian Anti-Corruption
Last week, I had the pleasure to serve as a cochair to the anti-corruption and institutional integrity working group for... View Article
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