Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Monday, June 01, 2026

Corruption is a term used to describe dishonest or fraudulent behavior by someone in power. When applied on a national scale, "corruption" refers to government leaders who abuse their power, take bribes, or commit fraud or other disreputable acts to increase their own wealth and/or power instead of helping the people they are meant to serve.

Corruption is an unfortunate reality in many nations around the world, especially low-income countries, developing countries, and least developed countries, which have fewer checks and balances on their rulers' powers.

While no single data indicator directly measures corruption in a nation, many indicators offer indirect-but-accurate evidence of the presence or absence of corruption.

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"One of the most comprehensive and trusted measures of corruption around the world is the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which is published annually by Transparency International.

The 2024 CPI gave 180 countries a score of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) based upon their perceived levels of public sector corruption.

As in previous years, more than two-thirds of the world's countries scored below 50 in the 2024 rankings, resulting in an average score of 43 for the twelfth year in a row, while 148 countries have stayed stagnant or gotten worse since 2012.

The top ten least corrupt appear below, followed by the full list further down the page."

;;

Really fun and telling Map at the link to run your cursor over.

China at 43?

"China is widely considered corrupt due to a combination of centralized, one-party political rule, opaque state institutions, and rapid, state-directed economic growth.

Without a free press or independent judiciary to enforce accountability, vast power is concentrated in the hands of officials who can manipulate resources, land allocations, and lucrative contracts."

www.google.com

US down to 64. (Chile 63, Uruguay 73... Botswana 58. SKorea 63, NKorea 15)

Look out China, we're coming down after you!

And People wonder why DJT Loves him some Vlad 22, Xi 43, Kim 15!

They are LEADING the Way!

#1 | Posted by Corky at 2026-06-01 08:19 PM | Reply

"based upon perceived levels"

Perceived.

LOL!

These lists are created by certain people to make those same certain people feel all nice and cozy inside.

#2 | Posted by NerfHerder at 2026-06-01 08:46 PM | Reply

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#3 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-06-01 08:47 PM | Reply

#2

This is one of many of what are known as, perception and performance indices, as they track both.

"The most corrupt countries are determined primarily by perception rankings, as perfectly objective metrics for clandestine crimes like bribery and embezzlement do not exist.

To measure this, institutions evaluate data by aggregating surveys, expert assessments, and objective governance datasets."

www.google.com

It's pretty basic stuff.

#4 | Posted by Corky at 2026-06-01 09:11 PM | Reply

Hi Corky

Finland is #2 to Denmark probably because the hearty Finns imbibe a wee bit more than the Danes and a bar bill gets lost in the shuffle along the way from time to time.


#5 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-06-01 11:08 PM | Reply

Putin Supporters Are Leaving Russia

www.youtube.com

(Russia Corruption Rating 22; near the top of the Corruption List)

#6 | Posted by Corky at 2026-06-02 03:34 PM | Reply

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