Scene from "Boardwalk Empire"
A couple of weeks ago I highlighted the State Integrity Investigation project, which graded Virginia “F” for transparency and accountability, and warned that poor ratings indicate a higher risk for corruption. (Read blog post.)
I argued that Virginians should consider the report a wake-up call. But some people — and not just Virginians — find the study’s implications to be laughable. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed this morning, Paul Sherman, who litigates campaign finances cases for the Institute for Justice, and David M. Primo, a political science professor at the University of Rochester, take a critical look at the investigation. They find it curious that New Jersey and Virginia would stand at opposite extremes in the transparency-and-accountability rankings, especially considering that the Pew Center on the States judged Virginia as one of the best governed states in the nation.
The State Integrity Investigation study never defines “corruption,” the authors note. Further, the project simply assumes that the presence or absence of its transparency/accountability indicators, like campaign finance limits and lobby disclosure, contribute to good government.
“It isn’t asking too much of good-government groups to come forward with evidence that their preferred policies actually reduce corruption,” the authors write. “On that score, the State Integrity Investigation falls far short of the mark.
— JAB
