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▶ Read the CPI report here: https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/Report_CPI2023-EMBARGOED-UNTIL-07-01-AM-CET-TUESDAY-30-JANUARY-2024.pdf
▶ And find the interactive map here: https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2023/
▶ In this video, I take a look at the Corruption Perception Index of 2023 created by Transparency International. Throughout the video we go into the complexities of corruption, exploring its definitions and global impact. The CPI ranks 180 countries based on perceived levels of public sector corruption, shedding light on systemic issues and the need for reform. Despite some arguably contentious scores, the data highlights both progress and persistent challenges worldwide. Join me as we navigate through regional disparities, government types, and the urgent call for justice articulated by Transparency International. From Denmark, Finland, and New Zealand topping the list as the least corrupt nations to Somalia, Venezuela, and Syria grappling with pervasive corruption, the rankings underscore both progress and persistent hurdles on a global scale. I believe While the rankings offer valuable insights, they also invite critical reflection.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Transparency.org Acknowledgement
00:16 What Is Corruption?
00:46 What Can Governments Do To Tackle It?
01:21 What Is The Corruption Perception Index?
02:07 Requirements For Collected Data
02:42 Opinion Disclaimer
02:57 Global Corruption Overview
03:49 South America
04:02 North America
04:19 Europe
04:31 Middle-East
04:54 Asia
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0:00
This video was made with the assistance in research of Transparency International
0:04
Thank you to them for their help in providing this data. Corruption
0:17
It's defined as dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, and it's an issue that every society faces throughout history
0:25
One might argue there is no way around it, and that it's simply a part of life
0:28
but the reality is that it's a bigger part of life in some places than in others
0:33
so there is objectively something we can do to prevent it. The chair of Transparency International states precisely this
0:40
Corruption will continue to thrive until justice systems can punish wrongdoing and keep governments in check
0:46
And they point to six things that governments can do, in their opinion, to tackle corruption and or the perception of it
0:52
First, strengthen the independence of the justice system, then make justice more transparent, introduce integrity and monitoring mechanisms
1:00
improve access to justice, promote cooperation within the justice system, and expand avenues for accountability in grand corruption cases
1:09
On January 30 of this year, Transparency International released their 2023 Corruption Perception Index
1:15
Its report shows that worldwide, most countries have made little to no progress in tackling public sector corruption
1:21
but what is the report and what is the CPI? The Corruption Perception Index is a statistical document that ranks 180 countries and territories
1:30
by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of 0, highly corrupt
1:36
to 100, very clean. And how do they come up with this ranking? What is their methodology
1:41
They aggregate data from several sources that capture perceptions among business people
1:46
and country experts of the level of corruption in the public sector
1:50
It's important to point out that word, perception, and while perception more than often points to a true reality
1:56
there can be cases where perception is incorrect, due to propaganda or other reasons
2:01
and everyone might think everyone else is corrupt when that isn't the case
2:05
I would say that's important to keep in mind. To try and fight this issue, the data they select must fulfill the following criteria
2:12
It quantifies risk or perception of corruption in the public sector, it's based on a reliable and valid methodology
2:18
It comes from a reputable organization. It allows for sufficient variation of scores to distinguish between countries
2:25
It ranks a substantial number of countries across more than one region
2:29
It considers only the assessments of country experts or business people, and it's updated
2:33
regularly at least every two years. They then standardize those on a scale of 1 to 100, calculate averages, and report the
2:40
measure of uncertainty. In this video, we're going to go through this ranking and learn which the most and least
2:46
corrupt countries in the world are, according to the report. It's important to note that I don't
2:50
necessarily agree with the entirety of the ysis or its scores. I invite you to have
2:55
critical thinking when watching this as well. Let's start with an overview of the interactive
3:00
map. It's very cool to explore. I'll post a link in the description for you if you want to visit it
3:05
The color scale, where dark red is worse and light yellow is good, instantly provides us a
3:09
general perception of how each country does. Although I would argue it's a little of a dramatic
3:14
choice and gives us too much of a negative perception overall. A country like Denmark
3:19
that scores 90 out of 100 should be I think shown in green and not yellow just like all those that are at least over 80 The constant idea that corruption exists everywhere and that no high score
3:30
and method to fight it is ever good enough just contributes to our further disbelief in our own
3:35
systems, putting them further at risk. But anyway, let's look at the map. First, this scrolling
3:40
sidebar shows us the list in ranking form with the respective score and whether they stayed the same
3:46
or moved up or down from the previous year. South America doesn't do great, Uruguay is the best at
3:52
73 and it ranks 16th worldwide which is pretty good. Brazil for instance doesn't do very well
3:58
with a low score of 36, ranking 104th in the world. In North America the US scores 69
4:04
ranking 24th worldwide, not a bad score, and well above the global average which is in the red
4:10
But it's been dropping a lot, in 2015 it was up at 76, Canada does much better though
4:15
at 76 now and ranking 12th in the world. In Europe, the Nordics definitely do better than all the rest
4:22
although Iceland is left behind and has similar scores to those of Western Europe. Scores start
4:27
dropping in the south and drop even more as we go further east. And this trend continues if you
4:32
keep moving into Asia. Turkey does badly at 34, haven't been falling consistently since 2012
4:39
Saudi Arabia and the UAE do surprisingly well according to this, which makes me question the
4:44
scores a little bit, I can't really conceive how an absolute monarchy can score 52 and
4:49
supposedly be less corrupt than a democracy like Greece, as flawed as it may or may not be
4:55
Central Asia does poorly too, then India ranks 93rd in the world, scoring 39, and there are
5:00
only a few outliers in the Asian continent, Bhutan with 68, South Korea with 63, Japan
5:07
with 73, Taiwan with 67, and Hong Kong at 75, surprisingly considering the influence
5:13
that China has imposed on it lately, which itself only scores at 42
5:18
In Oceania, these scores aren't great throughout the islands, but Australia and New Zealand
5:23
do set themselves apart, with good scores of 75 and 85, ranking 14th and 3rd worldwide, respectively
5:31
In Africa, the situation is dire, everywhere is in the red, places like Somalia, Libya and
5:36
South Sudan do the worst. Botswana is the best, with a score of 59, but when you click on it and look at the evolution
5:43
you see that it's been dropping, in 2012 it was at 65. Rwanda does okay as well, but everyone else
5:49
not so much. Now let's take a look at the highlights from a global perspective
5:54
Denmark tops the index for the sixth consecutive year, Finland and New Zealand follow closely with
5:59
scores of 87 and 85 respectively, Denmark had 90, they're followed by Norway at 84, Singapore at 83
6:07
Sweden at 82 and Switzerland with the same level, no other country has a score of over 80
6:13
These high scores are attributed mostly due to very well functioning justice systems
6:18
although the report itself does mention an important detail here, calling it trouble at
6:22
the top, stating that as a measure of public sector corruption, the CPI does not capture
6:27
activities such as money laundering or foreign bribery. This is identified as a main weakness
6:33
that they have and its absence may contribute to a false perception that there is very little
6:37
corruption in top ranking countries, while that might not be the case
6:41
It may exist just differently and through private entities rather than public powers Cross corruption is also important and many private entities in high ranking countries may be involved in public corruption in those that do poorly
6:54
On the other hand of the spectrum we have Somalia with 11, Venezuela with 13 as well
6:59
as Syria and South Sudan and Yemen with 16. They are all affected by protracted crises and mostly armed conflicts
7:07
A few other countries also have scores under 20, Nicaragua with 17, North Korea, Haiti
7:13
and Equatorial Guinea with the same value, then Turkmenistan with 18, and Libya with 18 as well
7:19
On another negative note, 23 countries, among them some high-ranking democracies and fully
7:23
developed countries, are at a historic low score this year. Some examples of those are Iceland at
7:30
72, the Netherlands at 79, Sweden at 82, the United Kingdom at 71, and then Iran at 24, Russia at 26
7:38
Tajikistan at 20 and Venezuela at 13. Don't get me wrong, Sweden for instance has a great score at
7:45
82 but it is still its own personal lowest point which may be a sign of a negative trend for the
7:50
country. And while low scores are understandable in authoritarian countries, like the last four I
7:55
just listed, it's a little hard to understand why a country like the UK only ranks at 71
8:00
Over the past 10 years, between 2012 and 2023, 28 countries improved their score
8:06
34 countries declined and 118 countries stay the same. Overall, not a terrible situation if over
8:12
a decade the situation has sort of maintained itself. It's also interesting to look at the
8:16
average score for countries which are grouped depending on their type of government. The average
8:21
score for full democracies, 24 countries, is 73. For flawed democracies, which are 48 countries
8:27
it's 48. And for non-democratic regimes, which the index considers being the case for 94 countries
8:33
it's only 32. Overall, two-thirds of countries worldwide have a corruption perception index
8:38
below 50. So now let's go region by region to learn about the average score for each of them
8:45
In Western Europe and the European Union, the average score is 65. This is the highest scoring
8:50
region in the world. On the other hand, the lowest scoring region is Sub-Saharan Africa at 33
8:56
And here is a good moment to remember that first quote that said, corruption will continue to thrive until justice systems can punish wrongdoing and keep governments
9:04
in check. Because this chart shows us the comparison between corruption and impunity
9:10
It shows us that countries with higher levels of corruption are actually those that are less
9:14
likely to sanction public officials, concluding that low likelihood of sanctions can also serve
9:20
as an incentive to engage in corruption. On the other hand, this chart may also show us how the
9:26
index might not be correct because it shows us countries where prosecution is very little but
9:31
perception of corruption is very high and while this may mean that corruption exists and it isn't
9:37
prosecuted it might also mean that corruption doesn't exist because it's not persecuted with
9:42
the perception being incorrect. In other regions there are a lot of countries that also score in
9:47
negative numbers. In the Americas 66% of countries score below 50. In Europe that number is only 13%
9:53
In Sub-Saharan Africa, it's a whopping 90%. The Middle East and North Africa has 78% in the negative
10:00
Eastern Europe and Central Asia is even worse at 95%. And Asia Pacific has 68% under the 50 score mark as well
10:08
But these are just overall views Let go into further detail within these regions First Western Europe mostly made up of the EU is the only region with an average score that is positive like we mentioned at 65
10:20
Denmark, Finland and Norway are the top 3 scores, while Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania
10:25
are the bottom 3. Estonia and Italy have improved the most lately, while Austria, Poland and the UK have declined
10:32
the most. And many have reached new maximum and minimum scores, which is irrelevant worldwide, but
10:37
important for the evolution and trend within the country itself. Then Eastern Europe and Central Asia which have a super low average score of 35 where
10:45
Georgia, Armenia and Montenegro are at the top score while Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and
10:50
Azerbaijan are at the worst. Armenia and Moldova have improved a lot and this is a positive note
10:57
Countries like Russia, Tajikistan and Turkey have reached their historic lows. Moving to the Middle East and North Africa where the average score is slightly higher
11:05
than the previous region at 38, Kauai has had the biggest improvement, Lebanon, Syria
11:10
and Yemen the biggest declines. All of the top scores are a little questionable in my opinion either due to their government
11:16
system or due to specific effort by governments to influence the justice system
11:21
In the Americas here is the situation. Pretty bad according to this with a lot of countries being under 50 and below the global average
11:29
The regional average is only 43. is Asia-Pacific with an average regional score of 45. New Zealand does incredibly well with a score
11:37
of 85 but it's followed very closely by Singapore at 83 while Australia is followed closely by Hong
11:43
Kong. Afghanistan, North Korea and Myanmar are at the bottom but there have been significant
11:49
improvements elsewhere as we can see. And finally in sub-Saharan Africa we already know it's not
11:54
good. The regional average is the lowest of all at 33 but my previous overview of the continent
11:59
left out an important part of it, the islands. Cabo Verde reached a max score and a pretty good
12:04
one of 64 and the Seychelles an even better one of 71. They can be great examples for the rest of
12:11
their African neighbors. Botswana remains the only continental country with an okay score
12:17
So, those are the most and least corrupt countries in the world according to the
12:21
Corruption Perception Index made by Transparency International for the year of 2023. Upon the
12:27
release of the CPI, Daniel Erickson, CEO of this organization, stated, Corruption worsens social injustice and disproportionately affects the most vulnerable
12:37
In many countries, obstacles to justice for victims of corruption persist. It is time to
12:41
break the barriers and ensure people can access justice effectively. Everyone deserves fair and
12:47
inclusive legal systems where victims' voices are heard at every stage. Anything else is an
12:52
affront to justice. I would say I agree with this, although again, I would argue it's important to
12:56
distinguish between the perception of corruption and its effective existence. From a first impression
13:02
I also think some of the scores are a little too surprising to be true. In other words
13:06
my perception of their validity doesn't really correspond to my perception of reality there
13:11
But then again, I may be the one who is wrong. I invite you to visit their page
13:15
read the report yourself, and reach your own conclusions. Based on what I showed you here
13:20
what do you think? Do you agree with your country or any specific country's ranking
13:23
Were you surprised by any of them? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching this video, subscribe to catch future ones and I will see you next
13:30
time for more general knowledge
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