Zardnaar
Deity
I am not sure I completely agree with dishonesty. I would say it is more about whether politicians are held accountable for their actions. Secrecy is obviously a big component of this, especially in functional democracies. But if someone has a firm enough grasp of power that they cannot be held accountable, they can be corrupt more openly.
The badness of corruption scales with the leverage of actions. If a politician pays themselves a million, they cost the country a million. If they take a million in bribes for making decisions that cost the country a billion, the impact is much worse.
I think you are reading the shades of green wrong. If my eyes don't betray me, Switzerland has a higher score than most of Europe. The metric is simply how corrupt people think a country is. The actual amount of corruption (whatever that would be) does not matter beyond how it influences these opinions.
Also what counts as corruption.
Alot if "influence" is legal and semi out in the open.
Outright bribery and theft is probably what people think of as corruption.
Also where is the corruption eg body politic, civil service or society at large. And what's the level of corruption.
USA everyone's favorite kicking hot fails a lot of the tests but scores well in other ways eg freedom of press.
And they have things like SEC. Corruption happens but one can't be to blatant about it and you can get prosecuted. There's a lot worse.