Originally Posted by
dera
It's still a modern functioning western democracy. For example, Transparency International ranks it above the US in their corruption perception index.
I still own a small company there. It's one of the best places in Europe to start/run a business.
Lots of issues with the CPI metric. Probably better to be very near the top than very near the bottom, but other than that the signal-to-noise ratio can be pretty poor.
The US ranking is generally considered suspect since we have large segments of the poplulation who are whipped into a frenzy of resentment against American society and government by their political leaders. Just because they don't get all the free benefits they want from the government and taxpayers does not mean the government is corrupt.
CPI, being a measure of *perception* would have to be viewed very much in the context of local politics.