Sunday 26 August 2018

Comparative Corruption in the United States and Canada

On Quora, recently, I rejected someone's idea that Canada and the United States should merge. One reason I offered is that it would leave Canada subordinate to the more corrupt of the two nations. I was challenged to substantiate my comment, but the person I was corresponding with rejected the standard measures of national corruption. Here is a lightly-edited version of my defence:
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Let us look at the political system in the United States for signs of corruption. The first problem it faces in being fair and free is interference elections by partisan gerrymandering.

The US ends up with electoral districts like this one:

Canada has electoral districts determined by non-partisan committees based on electoral data, natural boundaries, existing communities, and compact borders. They look like these:


In a province with fewer geographical features, they look like this:


The corrupt redistricting in the US has huge effects on the results of elections. For example, “The Brennan Center for Justice estimates extreme partisan bias gave Republicans at least 16 to 17 more seats in the 2016 election, and possibly as many as 29, according to one analysis. Democrats were 24 seats short of controlling the House of Representatives.” (Here's how gerrymandering games U.S. elections — and why this Pennsylvania decision matters | CBC News).



The second problem is ongoing efforts to disenfranchise voters on partisan grounds (New Voting Restrictions in America). These include imposing requirements for specific forms of picture ID and the closing offices in which they can be obtained (e.g. As it turns out ... Bentley's driver's license closures were racial, after all), as well as the closing of polling stations in minority districts (this story is from 2014, New G.O.P. Bid to Limit Voting in Swing States, and this one is from 2016, Opinion | The Voters Abandoned by the Court, and this one is from 2018, Georgia candidates decry plan to close voting sites in mostly black...).

In contrast Elections Canada (the independent federal agency that runs the elections) has a mandate to educate the electorate in order to increase the number of votes.

The third problem is the transparent and overwhelming influence of money on the American government’s composition and decisions. I became aware of that in the lead-up to the “Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension Act,” also known as the “Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act.” It was an outright gift of an extra twenty-year monopoly to copyright holders or, to put it differently, a brazen theft from the public domain. Prior to that act, there were 10 extensions in 40 years, all timed to prevent the first Mickey Mouse cartoon from falling into the public domain. Now, even with a 70 or 95-year term in place, Congress is looking at extending it again (Congress' Latest Move to Extend Copyright Protection Is Misguided).

This is just one example, of course. Looking at all the data leads to the Princeton study that tested whether the United States was better described as a democracy or an oligarchy. It came down on the side that “oligarchy” was a better description (https://scholar.princeton.edu/si...).

Honestly, though, any research on the influence of the Military-Industrial Complex, pork barrelling (Pork barrel spending on the rise in Congress, watchdog group says), the Koch Brothers or the Big Pharma lobbies would lead one to the same conclusion. The endless electoral process from the primaries up to the election requires endless cash, which comes with substantial strings. In fact, American “elected officials spend 30-70% of their time in office fundraising for the next election. When they’re not fundraising, they have no choice but to make sure the laws they pass keep their major donors happy — or they won’t be able to run in the next election.” (One graph shows how the rich control American politics).

Whether the legislators are corrupt or the judges, I don’t know, but this is not a good sign of a fair and open government: The West Virginia House impeached the entire state Supreme Court.

In contrast, Canada has strict limits on personal contributions to electoral campaigns or parties, and corporations are not allowed to donate at all. Campaigns are also short. And the government provides rebates on some electoral expenses to encourage smaller parties to participate in the election and be heard.

Finally, appointments to Canadian courts, even the highest, are based on qualifications, not politics. (Why Canada's Supreme Court appointments are nothing like America's circus - Macleans.ca; Non-political SCC appointment process a welcome improvement). In most cases, a judge’s politics are not even known.

So, without referring to any of the measures you reject, I argue that the United States has a more corrupt political culture than Canada.

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