Corruption On The Rise

The corruption index CPI is falling in many Western countries, including especially the USA. The problem is becoming urgent, because it seems to get worse even into the next years.

Transparency International issued their report for 2024 CPI earlier this year, in February. The index showed a remarkable decline in some countries, including USA and Germany. However, now, at nearly mid-year, the early prediction is that CPI has fallen even further for some of these countries. This is due to disrespect for well-established international law and agreements, as well as direct removal of regulations that have helped safeguarding compliance with anti-corruption rules.

Another factor is the US government directly embracing the rise of crypto currencies which are in themselves a vector for corruption because of the secrecy and the fraud inherent in the way those currencies work.

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories according to the levels of public-sector corruption perceived by experts and businesspeople. It relies on 13 independent data sources and uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

CPI 2024

In 2024, Nordic countries and Singapore-New Zealand-Switzerland came out top of the list with a score (out of max 100) of 90 down to 80. After that, in the 70’es range, Netherlands to UK. We find USA in the middle of the 60’es range, with 65 and down 4 since the year before, 2023.

CPI Score list and map 2024. Transparency International

The dynamics are interesting, because compared to 2023, USA is down 4 points in the score. So something was going on already during 2023 that saw a slide in the perceived corruption. However, the slide was greatest between 2017 and 2021, so coinciding with the Trump 1 administration. From a score of 75 in 2017, USA dropped to 67 in 2021.

CPI Score history for USA. Transparency International

Predictions

Expectations should be that USA will slide even further down the CPI index list in 2025, based on the experience from the Trump 1 administration. The question is only, how far.

This time, with the Trump 2 administration, the approach is much less covert, more openly directed at enabling enrichment of individuals and companies at the expense of government economy and that of the taxpayers. With Trump 1, it was at least attempted to make it seem like Trump senior had given up control over his companies to his sons, which actually was not much of a solution. But with Trump 2, he is himself openly profiting from all kinds of foreign gifts, investments, and enterprises such as crypto.

For some reason, there are no or very sparse interventions on this perceived corruption. Further, oligarchs such as Elon Musk have been given direct roles in government and have closed down departments and activities that they see as hindrances for their business practice and have obtained lucrative government contracts for their businesses while serving in government positions.

Elon Musk and X at the White House. Photo: The White House, Public domain

Once responsible government branches are able to take on their lawful role, any corrupt practice should be challenged. This remains to be seen, though. Meanwhile, the USA will continue to slide down the ranking.

In the first year of Trump 1, the slide was from 75 to 71. Because the disruption has been so fast and so brutal this time, especially with DOGE, we can expect that the slide will be bigger. Double is not impossible, so we may see a 2025 score of 57, which is 8 down from the current 65.

This development has already happened and will continue unless some decisive reversal of policies happens, which is unlikely right now.

Other countries

Looking at some other countries we see that the Western trend is not encouraging, either, in many countries.

• Canada score 75, down 1

• Mexico score 26, down 5

• UK score 71, unchanged

• Germany 75, down 3

• France 67, down 4

• Italy 54, down 2

• Australia 77, up 2

• Russia 22, down 4

• USA 65, down 4

More attention to this problem is needed, it would seem.