Corruption exists in all countries-it is another matter who perceives it. The authorities of Western countries present the situation in their own way, and citizens evaluate it quite differently. This assessment is not in favor of the authorities.

When it comes to corruption, there is always a desire to know the opinion of independent experts. Especially if these experts like as professionally engage in this question. The international organization Transparency International constantly monitors the level of corruption in the world and annually produces ratings on this issue. The top of the most corruption-free countries, as a rule, include, among others, such countries as the USA, Germany, Britain and France. However, the opinion of the citizens of these countries, as it turned out, is somewhat different.

For example, two-thirds of Americans (66%), more than half of the French (52%), 41% of Britons and more than a third of Germans (34%) consider high levels of corruption in the highest authorities in their countries. These are the results of a survey of IFop – France’s oldest company engaged in the study of public opinion. Respondents in the United States, Great Britain, Germany and France were asked to answer the question: “How do you assess the level of corruption in the highest authorities in Your country?”. It was possible to choose one of four options: “high”, “average”, “low” and “I find it difficult to answer”. The answers speak for themselves: to sum up, almost half of the inhabitants of these four countries consider the level of corruption of the highest authorities to be “high”. The” average ” level of corruption in their countries is 29% of the French, 38% of Germans, 31% of Britons and 19% of Americans.

It is noteworthy that the vast minority in the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom called the level of corruption in their homeland low – only 6%, 10%, 21% and 16%, respectively. That is, the vast majority of citizens are confident not only in the very existence of this problem, but also in its wide spread.

From the survey data it also follows that the younger generation of French evaluate the moral character of the authorities more strictly than older people. Supporters of Marine Le Pen consider politicians to be corrupt more often than those who voted for Emmanuel Macron in 2017: 71% against 29%. In the UK, voters who are sympathetic to the “green” and eurosceptics are more dissatisfied with the level of corruption. In the US it’s mostly Democrats. In Germany, residents of the Eastern part of the country often express dissatisfaction with the corruption of the authorities. It is clear that supporters of the opposition forces often talk about corruption in their countries. But, in any case, the situation shows a serious crisis of confidence to the authorities in the countries that are considered the leaders of the Western world.