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11 E. Eur. Const. Rev. 80 (2002)
Culture of Corruption or Accountability Deficit

handle is hein.journals/eeurcr11 and id is 340 raw text is: Culture of Corruption or Accountability Deficit? Alina Mungiu-Pippidi T he European Commission's recent round of reports, issued in 2002, monitoring would-be Imembers of the EU identified corruption, once again, as the most salient issue in every postcom- munist country aspiring to membership. A report from Open Society Institute, published in the fall of 2002, also discusses the situation country by country, putting full emphasis of its own on areas where the commission routinely notes that sufficient progress has not been achieved. The overall conclusion is gloomy: corruption in future member countries continues to be rampant, and the EU is not prepared to handle it. Furthermore, the regional New Europe Barometer 2001 survey shows that countries invited to join the EU in the first wave, such as Lithuania or Slovakia, perceive their administrations to be just a corrupt as those in coun- tries that are lagging behind, such as Romania and Bulgaria. From plan to clan or from nomenklatura to kleptokratura to culture of corruption, there is no shortage of catchy phrases depicting the various features of corruption as a general phenomenon.' But is corruption the problem here, in fact, or is it singled out only for lack of a better word to explain why, although the formal political criteria for accession were fulfilled even in Romania and Bulgaria (countries joining later, after 2007, primarily for economic reasons), the informal realities trail far behind? Corruption cannot be the right word to cover the politicization of a state administration that functions only when palms are greased; the partisanship of the media, as a general rule; the blurred border between politics and business; the apathy and inertia of law-and- order agencies; the domination of the military and secret services by Warsaw Pact-era officials; or the cronyism plaguing entire societies-not just individual nations' politics. Corruption, as a concept, does not capture the failure of politicians in these societies to construct a public-interest space, a failure that leaves blatant partisan interests to reign over every aspect of life, from privatization to the regulation of public broadcasting. Most institutions of accountability simply do not seem to perform as they do in Western coun- tries.Why does this happen? This article suggests possible answers to this ques- tion, based on a survey completed by citizens of the aspirant EU members, with a special focus on Slovakia (to become a full member in 2004), Bulgaria, and Romania (hopefully in 2007). These responses origi- nated in an opinion poll concerning perceptions of accountable government organized by the Romanian Academic Society within a framework provided by a Freedom House Regional Networking Program in these three countries. The social situation, as under- stood by all respondents, turned out to be fairly similar in all three states, despite the cultural differences one would expect to find (these three countries fall on either side of Samuel Huntington's civilization line: Slovakia is Catholic and a former Habsburg domimion; Romania and Bulgaria are Orthodox and former Ottoman provinces). Corruption is commonly defined as the grease of commerce. The evidence coming out of these surveys is that it is the grease, not of business, but of public service. Proof that business activities require more in the way of bribes than any other activity is conspicu- ously absent or may even point to the contrary. 80 EAST EUROPEAN CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW

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