Authoritarian States Tend to be More Corrupt than Democratic States

Countries ruled by authoritarian regimes are generally more corrupt than democracies.

This is evident from the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) report released by Transparency International (TI).

The CPI is an index that measures the level of corruption in a country based on the perceptions of experts and business people regarding abuse of public office, bribery, official integrity, and law enforcement.

These perceptions are then converted into a score on a scale of 0-100. The higher the score, the cleaner the country is considered to be. Conversely, the lower the score, the more corrupt the country is considered.

According to TI's findings, countries with full democracies had an average CPI score of 71 points in 2025, and countries with flawed democracies averaged 47 points.

Meanwhile, countries with non-democratic or authoritarian systems of government averaged only 32 points, as shown in the graph.

"The broader picture shows that democracy and strong, independent institutions are crucial for combatting corruption fully, effectively and sustainably," TI stated in its report.

TI also found that corrupt practices are generally more prevalent in countries with limited freedom of expression.

"Those where the freedoms of expression, assembly and association are duly safeguarded are generally more resilient against corruption and score better on the CPI," TI said.

"However, countries where these freedoms are lacking are more likely to lose control of corruption," they added.