Figure 5: Undue influence of government Average percentage from the 107 countries surveyed To what extent is this country’s government run by a few big interests looking out for themselves?
6%
13%
28%
0
36%
20 Not at all
40
Limited extent
60
Somewhat
Large extent
Figure 6: Undue influence of government – OECD countries Average percentage from the 28 OECD countries in our survey To what extent is this country’s government run by a few big interests looking out for themselves? Percentage of respondents that answered ‘large extent’ or ‘entirely’.
% respondents that think the government is run by a few big interests Norway
5
Canada
54
Switzerland
19
Germany
55
Denmark
24
France
57
Finland
28
Slovakia
60
Korea (South)
28
United Kingdom
60
Luxembourg
39
Mexico
62
Japan
44
Chile
63
New Zealand
44
Slovenia
63
Estonia
46
United States
64
Czech Republic
49
Spain
66
Turkey
49
Belgium
70
Australia
52
Italy
70
Hungary
52
Israel
73
Portugal
53
Greece
83
Global Corruption Barometer 2013
19%
80
100
Entirely
4.2 Corruption in major institutions In a given country, corruption differs in its severity across different sectors and different institutions. Political parties were seen to be the most corrupt institution, scoring 3.8 on the scale of one to five. The police were seen to be the next most corrupt institution, followed by the judiciary, parliament and public officials. In short, it is the actors that are supposed to be running countries and upholding the rule of law that are seen as the most corrupt, judged to be abusing their positions of power and acting in their own interests rather than for the citizens they are there to represent and serve. Religious institutions are seen as least corrupt around the world. However, people in a number of countries perceive even these institutions to be highly corrupt. In Israel, Japan, Sudan and South Sudan, religious bodies scored above four.
15