Lebanon officially corrupt and lawless

Lebanon won a rather inglorious ranking of 128 out of 176 countries in Transparency International’s 2012 Corruption Perception Index (CPI). The data collected from independent institutions specializing in governance and business climate analysis reflects the perceived degree of corruption in the public sector. In comparison to its regional neighbors, Lebanon was 14th out of 20 Arab countries, and with regards to its economic strata placed 35th among 41 upper-middle-income countries. The poor CPI ranking came on the back of another bad show in The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2012, in which Lebanon came 44th out of 97 countries. The gauge measures the implementation of the rule of law by aggregating 48 sub-factors into eight factors; limited government powers, open government, absence of corruption, regulatory enforcement, order and security, fundamental rights, civil justice and criminal justice. Perhaps the most disconcerting result was Lebanon’s ranking of 85th place in