One of the excuse of those who support corruption is that they are helping their friends. But there can be artificial friendship. On a survey or poll some years ago in India, those who supported corruption said it is way of introduction of businessman to a bureaucrat. Mario Puzo said mafia is friend of friends.

Their is a well known saying in India, Indians steal in Dhoti (traditional indian pants), while westerners steal in suites. Corruption is prevalent in all parts of the world just the type of corruption changes. Wherever, power and money is involved, there is corruption.

That is the excuse in India to fight corruption. Everybody is fighting corruption, Indians are not. But if you think further, Spying is also cheating and corruption which is glorified everywhere.

there is plenty of high level corruption in India too, and on top of that you have to deal with the pervasive low level corruption. One of the things that caused my dad to decide to leave Bangladesh was having to pay a bribe to get phone service installed.

I don't think there is any relationship between the location of a country and corruption.

Japan, Hong Kong and especially Singapore are rated as some of the least corrupt countries on earth[1], ahead of both the US and the UK.

(South) Korea rates roughly the same as most of Europe, while China & Sri Lanka are roughly the same as Italy (hmm).

India & Thailand were rated roughly the same as Greece.

There seems to be a much closer (if still rough) correlation between a combination of GDP/capita and press freedom.

[1] http://www.transparency.org/cpi2012/results

Italy and Greece: two countries that are on the verge of economic collapse as a result of corruption, tax avoidance, etc.

Japan, Hong Kong, and Korea---three places with very strong U.S. and U.K. influence...

You're conflating a lot of things -- I'd hesitate before noting correlations to causation.

I'd consider viewing things under governmental structure, incentives, and the checks and balances in play than attributing any one culture or nation state to be some kind of paragon of virtue. Efficient governance is a luxury of first world countries, where enough people are capable and incentivized to play by the rules for it to work.

I do personally subscribe to freedom and the desire of the population for equitable governance and a level playing field for a better society, but that's a discussion for another time.

I think you are missing the point. "pervasive government corruption" is no more or less likely to occur in Asian countries than anywhere else.

Are you even looking at the map you linked to? Do you not see the Asian countries (ex-Japan) colored in reds and dark oranges, while North America, Australia/New Zealand, and western Europe are in shades of yellow? The major Western economies have scores of 70+ (U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Australia), while the major Asian economies, ex-Japan, have scores in the 20's and 30's. South Korea straddles the two, with a score in the 50's.

>>Do you think it's just a matter of coincidence?

No, but there is only little of that pie available and there are so many people who want a part of it.

There is a mad rush, just to gather as much as they can by whatever means they have or can.

Of course not. But the amount of corruption in places like India would make Dick Cheney blush.

Westerners can't really appreciate it unless they've experienced it. In the US, shameless corruption is rare. Dick Cheney genuinely believes what he's doing is justified in some way. In India, people have no shame. That creates the major difference: pervasive corruption among common people. Not just the wall street lobbyist, but the guy hooking up your phone service.