Governments are not held accountable to the people they govern even in countries with a long tradition of democratic elections, according to a study released by the Washington-based Centre for Public Integrity. None of the 25 election-holding countries studied in the report achieved a "very strong" ranking on the Public Integrity Index, which measures access to information and the strength of anti-corruption mechanisms. Of the 25 countries, just six received "strong" marks - the United States, which finished first, followed by Portugal, Australia, Italy, Germany and South Africa.