Corruption and the Economic Crisis: Empirical Indications from Eastern Europe
Corruption and the Economic Crisis: Empirical Indications from Eastern Europe

Summary/Abstract: Corruption is a widely studied phenomenon in the social sciences. Although pervasive, corruption is of difficult empirical measurement since it refers to a wide range of social, economic and political practices. Moreover, there is not a single methodological approach to corruption due to its complexity and high cultural variability. In Eastern Europe corruption is described as strongly dependent on the socialist experience, as well as on the dynamics of post-socialism. Following EU accession significant changes have been introduced to fight corruption and to improve institutional performance, however, the recent economic recession, coupled with the style of EU structural funding schemes may seriously undermine the success of these efforts bringing to the forefront problems of transparency, loss of trust and credibility of state and local government administrations.

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