America’s freest state has just been rated its least corrupt too.
Using U.S. Department of Justice data on corruption convictions in all 94 federal judicial districts from 2003-2024, the Cato Institute calculated the rate of corruption convictions per 10,000 government employees, then recently ranked states by their conviction rates.
New Hampshire ranked dead last, with 0.07 convictions per 10,000 government employees. That’s far below all other states. New Hampshire’s conviction rate is just 18% of the national average rate of 0.38 convictions per 10,0000 government employees. It’s just 6.6% of national leader Louisiana’s rate of 1.05.
All New England states except New Hampshire are clustered much closer together. With the most corruption in the region, Massachusetts’ rate is slightly more than double Vermont’s. But Vermont’s rate is nearly three times New Hampshire’s. Massachusetts’ rate is more than six times New Hampshire’s.
New England state rankings:
17. Massachusetts: 0.43
28. Rhode Island: 0.31
32. Connecticut: 0.26
36. Maine: 0.24
37: Vermont: 0.20
New Hampshire’s corruption conviction rate is just 35% of Vermont’s, 22.5% of Rhode Island’s and 16% of Massachusetts’.
Among the states with high rates of corruption convictions for government employees are Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland and Alabama. Montana and South Dakota rank in the top three, possibly because of recent federal investigations on Indian reservations, the Cato report suggests.
If power corrupts, then curtailing power curtails corruption. New Hampshire ranks first in freedom (the Cato Institute) and first in economic freedom (the Fraser Institute), so it fits that the same state would rank low in corruption.
Political corruption feeds on power. The more power a government has to control citizens’ lives, the greater the temptation (incentive) citizens have to pay for favors, exemptions, loopholes, etc.
New Hampshire’s political system was designed to divide and disperse power broadly among the people. That structural decentralization reduces both incentives and opportunities for government corruption.
Our massive House of Representatives makes lobbying the chamber difficult, and bribery a particularly daunting challenge. With such small House districts, representatives are more directly accountable to their neighbors, and they have little need for campaign funds. House leadership doesn’t have a lot of arm-twisting power, and bills can’t be killed in committee. The House’s own structure and rules suppress corruption.
The governor is constitutionally weak, and the independently elected Executive Council serves as a serious check on the office’s power to dispense state contracts. Department heads’ terms last longer than governors’ terms, so even controlling state departments isn’t a slam dunk for governors. And those department heads’ powers are checked by the Executive Council, which scrutinizes all large contracts not only for cost but for favoritism.
Though not a home rule state, New Hampshire has opted to delegate a massive amount of authority to hundreds of local governments. Dispersing power to small towns reduces its concentration, which reduces both the temptation and ability to trade money for influence.
Even at the local level, town budgets and many regulations are submitted to voters for approval, which serves as another check.
The people of New Hampshire don’t just separate powers. Granite Staters dice them into bits and spread their remains all over the state (like a mafia boss getting rid of a rival).
In The Untouchables, the gangsters fought each other “the Chicago way,” with ever increasing levels of violence. Instead of fighting for ever more power, Granite Staters divide and disperse it. The result: almost no government corruption. Call it “the New Hampshire way.”
