Corruption, Trust, and the Danger to Democratisation in the Former Soviet Union

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Corruption, Trust, and the danger to democratisation in the Former Soviet Union

Introduction

Corruption has become part of the jargon of the international development community over the past few years. With good governance and anti-corruption being firmly placed on the development agenda in almost all of the countries in transition from communism, the problem arises as to what exactly should be done about it and what are its effects. As Jeremy Pope of Transparency International has said, ‘anti-corruption is like motherhood: everybody likes to talk about it, but what is anyone doing about it?’ The problem lies not in just developing a comprehensive program to fight corruption but also in examining its causes and effects. The lack of hard data concerning the causes and effects of corruption in most countries in transition harms the design and implementation of activities to curb corruption. It is a lack, as I shall argue in this chapter, which creates further barriers to the dual transition to a liberal democracy and market economy.

This chapter examines the underlying reasons for corruption within the Former Soviet Union (FSU), and its impact on the process of democratisation. For our present purposes, the FSU is taken as encompassing the region of post-Soviet countries excluding the Baltic States, which have dramatically different standards of governance. It is particularly important to appreciate the anti-modern nature of FSU societies, the corruption that this causes, and its impact on the ability of these governments to foster social capital. Several key concepts frame this discussion. One is the Weberian understanding of a modern society, where the State works through the rule of law, and impersonal and efficient bureaucratic organisations. It is in this respect that the states of the FSU are decidedly anti-modern. The communist era command economy and monopolisation of the politics led to the creation of alternative structures for the...