Anticorruption agencies: expressive,constructivist and strategic uses |
| |
Authors: | Daniel Smilov |
| |
Institution: | (1) University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria |
| |
Abstract: | This article explores the reasons for the introduction of anticorruption agencies of a specific type in Eastern Europe. It
is argued that one of the important functions of these agencies—which are stronger on information gathering, coordination
and strategy rather than on investigation of concrete cases—is to give to the government some leverage over the anticorruption
discourse. Presenting the anticorruption commissions and agencies as (discourse-controlling) instruments gives an answer to
the troubling question why governing parties are at all interested in the introduction of such bodies. Apart from instrumentalization in political discourse, anticorruption
bodies in Eastern Europe have had other effects as well. As shown in the Baltic case, institutional engineering provides for
a brief window of opportunity during which political forces committed to integrity could gain the upper hand. The problem
in Eastern Europe, however, is not the lack of such windows of opportunities—it is more the lack of really committed political
forces capable of continuous and consistent anticorruption effort. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|