Corruption in Southeastern Europe and Latin America. An Introduction

When looking at developments in Southeastern Europe, the European Union (EU) usually treats corruption as one of the region’s most basic problems, as important as ethnic conflict and seemingly more important than economic development. Corruption indeed figures prominently within Southeastern Europe, where corruption scandals usually make up a large part of political reporting, so that the public is left with the impression that neither the ruling elites nor the institutions in the individual countries are to be trusted. As a result, in every country in Southeastern Europe rapprochement with the EU has been accompanied by the introduction of anti-corruption laws and agencies, although their effects have disappointed many. That is especially true for political corruption which has proved to be hard to tackle by schematic introduction of laws, rules, and regulations. While it is clear that certain types of everyday corruption have been contained significantly—such as that involving traffic police—abuses of power can be curbed only if there is some counterforce backed not only by the political will but also with the power and capability to fight corruption. Most Southeast European societies were modernized from above, with their citizens included into state affairs in a manner that was in many cases clientelistic. As a result, corruption control by civil society actors could emerge only with difficulty, although it does seems today that anti-corruption is developing successfully, at least in certain countries in the region.