More than half of the people surveyed by the Berlin-based nonprofit group Transparency International think that global corruption has worsened over the past two years. The largest public opinion survey on corruption, the group's Global Corruption Barometer, surveyed over 100,000 people in 107 countries. Its findings are a discouraging measure of the world's eroding trust in the very institutions meant to help people.
Most respondents felt that official anti-corruption measures had deteriorated because of the continuing world financial and economic crisis. In all of the countries surveyed, political parties were perceived as being the most corrupt institution, with the police and the judiciary close behind.
Two of three people stated that rather than a direct bribe, the usual mode of corruption — personal contacts and relationships — have become the form corruption takes in the public sector. Over half of people surveyed felt their government was run by groups acting in their own self-interest rather than for that of citizens.