Study: Corruption levels linked to health of democracies
Posted Jan 29, 2019 12:03:07 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BERLIN — A closely watched annual survey indicates countries like Hungary and Turkey are growing more corrupt as they become more autocratic, and threats to the American system of checks and balances have knocked the United States out of the top 20 “cleanest” countries.
International watchdog group Transparency International said its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2018 released Tuesday showed more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50, on its scale where 100 is very clean and 0 is very corrupt.
With a score of 71, the U.S. lost four points over 2017 and dropped out of the top 20 nations for the first time since 2011.
Overall, Denmark led the survey as the least corrupt nation, with a score of 88. Somalia was rated the most corrupt with a score of 10.
David Rising, The Associated Press
