Daily Archives: November 17, 2025

Charted: The Relationship Between Democracy and Corruption

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Scatter plot showing the relationship between electoral democracy and political corruption in countries using 2024 data from V-Dem

Charting the Relationship Between Democracy and Corruption

[…]

  • Highly democratic countries consistently report lower levels of political corruption, especially in Europe.
  • No countries in the dataset are rated as both highly democratic and highly corrupt.
  • Authoritarian regimes show a wide range of corruption levels, but none approach the values achieved by democracies.

How does the level of democracy in a country influence corruption?

According to new data from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project and a visualization by Our World in Data, the correlation is clear: democratic societies tend to be less corrupt.

The chart maps countries across two indices: Electoral Democracy (measuring free, fair, and meaningful elections) and the Political Corruption Index (focused on bribery and public theft), both scaled from 0 to 1.

[…]

At a glance, Denmark stands out as the best performer, with near-perfect scores for democracy and minimal corruption.

Conversely, authoritarian regimes like Myanmar, Russia, and China have low democracy scores and relatively high corruption, though corruption levels vary even among less democratic states. Interestingly, no country appears in the upper-right quadrant, combining high democracy with high corruption, emphasizing the strong inverse relationship.

Why Democracies Tend to Be Cleaner

As outlined in V-Dem’s policy brief, democracies inherently support anti-corruption mechanisms. These include:

  • Independent courts and investigative bodies
  • Active civil societies and free media
  • Checks and balances that discourage misuse of public office

These structures make it harder for corrupt activities to go unnoticed or unpunished. In contrast, authoritarian systems often lack such safeguards, allowing corruption to flourish unchecked.

Comparing with Perceptions of Corruption

While this dataset relies on expert-based assessments, public perception also plays a role in understanding corruption. For more context, see our previous post on which countries are perceived as the most corrupt globally.

[…]

Source: Charted: The Relationship Between Democracy and Corruption

Railgun Damage To Japanese Target Ship Seen For The First Time

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Japan’s Acquisition Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) has offered the first look at damage to a target ship after it was hit by projectiles fired from a prototype electromagnetic railgun in testing earlier this year.

Japan’s Acquisition Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) has offered the first look at damage to a target ship after it was hit by projectiles fired from a prototype electromagnetic railgun in testing earlier this year. Japanese authorities say valuable data and experience were gleaned from the demonstration, which will feed into its continued push toward an operational railgun capability. This is an area of development where the U.S. Navy notably halted work in the early 2020s, despite having seen promising progress, due to significant technological impediments.

[…]

Railguns, in general, use electromagnets instead of chemical propellants to fire projectiles at very high velocities. Dart-shaped projectiles, each with four fins at the rear and no warhead, were fired during the at-sea tests earlier this year. The projectiles were initially held inside a sabot that broke apart after leaving the muzzle. There was also a metal armature at the rear that served to push the projectile in the sabot down the barrel, which fell away after firing.

A slide from the ATLA presentation this week highlighting the evolution from earlier prototype railguns tested at facilities on land to the one mounted on the JS Asuka for the at-sea tests. ATLA
Another slide from the presentation discussing the design of the projectiles fired during the at-sea testing. ATLA
[…]

The wear on barrels from the sustained firing of projectiles at very high speeds is one of a number of long-standing challenges for railguns, in general. A worn-out barrel can lead to the loss of range and accuracy, as well as increase the risk of a catastrophic failure.

Railguns also have significant power generation and cooling requirements, which have, in turn, historically made them very physically bulky. The installation on JS Asuka included four shipping containers full of additional systems and equipment to help meet those needs.

Kazumi Ito, principal director of the equipment policy division at ATLA, said his country’s railgun efforts were “progressing,” but acknowledged “various challenges,” while speaking through an interpreter at a panel discussion at the DSEI Japan 2025 exposition earlier this year, according to National Defense Magazine.

[…]
“When it comes to warships, in particular, where physical space is at a premium and where options for reloading missiles at sea can be at best extremely limited, having a weapon system firing lower-cost munitions from a large magazine and that can engage a broad swath of target sets would be a clear boon.”
[…]

Source: Railgun Damage To Japanese Target Ship Seen For The First Time

Denmark rises again, finds another way to try to introduce 100% surveillance state in EU after public backlash stopped the last attempt at chat control. Send emails to your MEPs easily!

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Thanks to public pressure, the Danish Presidency has been forced to revise its text, explicitly stating that any detection obligations are voluntary. While much better, the text continues to both (a) effectively outlaw anonymous communication through mandatory age verification; and (b) include planned voluntary mass scannings. The Council is expected to formally adopt its position on Chat Control the 18th or 19th of November. Trilogue with the European Parliament will commence soon after.

The EU (still) wants to scan
your private messages and photos

The “Chat Control” proposal would mandate scanning of all private digital communications, including encrypted messages and photos. This threatens fundamental privacy rights and digital security for all EU citizens.

You Will Be Impacted

Every photo, every message, every file you send will be automatically scanned—without your consent or suspicion. This is not about catching criminals. It is mass surveillance imposed on all 450 million citizens of the European Union.

Source: Fight Chat Control – Protect Digital Privacy in the EU

The site linked will allow you to very easily send an email to your representatives by clicking a few times. Take the time to ensure they understand that people have a voice!