DANGER ZONES OF CORRUPTION: HOW MANAGEMENT OF THE MINISTERIAL BUREAUCRACY AFFECTS CORRUPTION RISKS IN POLAND

This article examines the relationship between management of the ministerial bureaucracy and the risk of high‐level corruption in Poland. Four danger zones of corruption in the ministerial bureaucracy are distinguished, comprising the personalisation of appointments, the emergence of multiple dependencies, the screening capacity of the personnel system and the incentive of bureaucrats to develop a reputation of honesty and competence. Empirically, the article investigates the case of Poland from 1997 until 2007 and sets the findings in a comparative East Central European perspective. The article shows that corruption risks in the ministerial bureaucracy increased in most but not all danger zones after 2001 and, in particular, during the period of the centre‐right governments that were in office between 2005 and 2007. The increase in corruption risks is reflected in Poland's deteriorating corruption record during the same period. The conclusion discusses the findings with regard to alternative causes of corruption and the relationship between civil service professionalisation and corruption in other East Central European countries. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

PUBLIC POLICY AND POLITICAL CHOICE: A REVIEW ARTICLE

Abstract: In reviewing the literature on policy studies, as in studying policy making itself, what you see depends on where you look. Studies of public policy vary widely in forms, methods and rationale. This paper does not try to categorize and capture the spirit of all aspects of a diverse and burgeoning literature. Its focus is on a number of recent books that straddle broadly the categories of process and administrative studies. The questions addressed in the volumes discussed are about how institutions handle issues in public policy, their relevance to the actual content of policy, and the ways in which individuals and groups within them see and respond to opportunities for choice. Each book is concerned with questions of theory but the books do not, either singly or together, suggest a single compelling theory of institutions and policy processes. Indeed, considering their theoretical sophistication, one may doubt whether such a goal is practicable. The better the work done on policy studies the more open-ended theoretically the field seems to be.