You may remember that we’ve talked about the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index in the past on Do You Really Know, which assigns each of the world’s countries a score from one to ten based on how democratic they are.  

But have you ever heard of a kleptocracy? It’s a phenomenon that can creep into democracies and drag down their scores. A kleptocracy is a political system where corruption and money laundering are rampant. Public funds are often syphoned off and hidden in tax havens, with the families and inner circles of those in power frequently benefiting from these large-scale thefts.

Is the “klepto” part similar to kleptomania? Where does this happen? Are Western democracies immune to all this? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

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A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

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