Somalia and North Korea were measured for the first time in 2011 – and they’re starting off at the very bottom of the index, tied for spot No. 182 with a score of 1. Just ahead of them were Afghanistan and Burma (Myanmar), sharing second-to-last place with a score of 1.5. The dubious honor of being the best of the worst five goes to Uzbekistan, with a score of 1.6.
As noted by the Guardian, unstable governments and a legacy of conflict go hand-in-hand, and with that, corruption. Somalia and Afghanistan have lacked a stable, strong central government for decades.
Mr. Marschall of Transparency International told Radio Free Europe that the rankings and the protests of the Arab world should “send a message to some governments in Central Asia and some other places that corruption can lead to regime changes.”
"The really, I would say, dark situation [is] in countries like Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, where there is hardly any accountability whatsoever. The governing elites have practically no accountability," he says. "There is no political opposition. There is no civil society. There is no free press. So these are basically almost closed societies, and that's why there is no improvement."
