see also:  corruption

MapLight — shedding light on politicians and their special interests

Maplight.org, is a Berkeley, Calif.’ company that opens the kimono on politicians, their financial ties with interest groups, and how they vote on bills in U.S Congress or state senate.

The site creates an extraordinary transparency not seen anywhere else. For example, it shows in great detail that several large corporations donated money to Rep. Kevin Brady around the time of his supporting vote of a free-trade agreement with Oman. On the day before the vote, someone associated with Lyondell Chemical gave him $1,000. Lyondell, Coca Cola and Dow Chemical are all shown as supporters of the bill. Such supporters gave twice as much money to politicians who supported the bill than they did to those who voted against.

So what’s driving founder Dan Newman, given that this company is a non-profit? It can’t be money. His answer: Politicians tend to be chosen according to how effective they can raise funds, which means many problems — whether healthcare, technology policy, or global warming — aren’t getting solved. “When I tried to explain campaign contributions are causing this, I was waving my hands too much,” he said. “We created Maplight to show people specifically how issues they care about are connected with campaign dollars.”

There are lots of other features. You can select individual politicians, and see what money is going to them, categorized not merely by company, but by interest group industry category (oil, transportation, etc). That’s because Maplight tags each donation according to which industry it comes from, not merely the company. Maplight tracks each congressional bill, and tracks which organizations have opposed or supported it. It also lets you sort by interest group, and shows which bills they’ve donated money to.

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Transparency International: Corruption Perceptions Index

Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index is a composite index which ranks countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials. This index indicates the views of national and international business people and analysts about the levels of corruption in each country.  The highest (and best) level of transparency is indicated by the number, 1.  The lower (and worse) levels of transparency are indicated by higher numbers -- 100 and above.

Source:  This material is derived from the 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International. Last updated in 2007.