Moving in Tandem or going it Alone?: Corruption and Anti-Corruption Policies in Eastern Europe

Academics generally agree that anti-corruption efforts to date have had limited effect. Lack of political will in the countries seriously affected by corruption poses a major obstacle to effective anti-corruption reform. But so does the overall failure to adjust reform measures to the cultural context into which they are introduced. Anti-corruption reform in Eastern Europe, for instance, tends to be externally driven. It is typically "informed" by Western notions of corruption - which may not coincide with local ones. The purpose of this project is to approach the study of corruption from an alternative angle by "returning to the concepts" - i.e. by (i) exploring local notions of corruption more generally; systematically mapping (ii) local understandings of the main terms used in internationally-driven anti-corruption reform; and (iii)local perceptions of corruption & anti-corruption in four key areas targeted by internationally-driven anti-corruption reform - in order to establish to what extent local notions and international definitions of corruption talk past each other. First, the project will provide "thick descriptions" of corruption - i.e. mapping the perceptions, attitudes, expectations and experiences of both ordinary citizens and elites on corruption & corruption-relevant themes. Large-scale qualitative & quantitative data will be collected for this purpose and be complemented with small-scale qualitative & quantitative data on sector-specific corruption in Georgia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, respectively. The project will expand our understanding of local notions of corruption across Europe and thus enhance our understanding of why anti-corruption reform in Eastern Europe has largely failed. Project findings will not only be used for academic purposes. They will also be communicated to the international community engaged in anti-corruption reform in this region with a view to improving the quality of reform and thus also its impact.