From Sofia to Brussels corrupt democratization in the context of European integration.

AuthorBulanova, Gergana
PositionDEFECTIVE DEMOCRACIES - Report

Defining the problem

The phenomenon of corruption enjoys an increasing amount of attention worldwide at least since the political change of 1989. The growing number of corruption surveys commissioned by different international organizations and research institutes, as well as the almost daily press releases about corruption affairs within local and national administrations, political parties, multinational companies, even in international organizations (1) demonstrates firstly that the topic of corruption is undoubtedly on the rise, and secondly that the phenomenon obviously affects all societies, social systems, institutions and states. It is undisputable however, that in some countries, and especially in times of intensive developmental periods corruption can have a devastating impact on society, politics and economy.

Concerning the corruption spread in the "third world" countries for about 40 years the, modernists" suggested that corruption is the outcome of the modernization. It is perceived to be most prevalent during the most intense phases of transformation from traditionalism to modernity. Thus the phenomenon of corruption can be seen as a signifier of deep social changes. In the most "third wave" democratization countries corruption appears to a barely manageable extent, affects all socio-political levels and infiltrates the every day life.

This article examines the correlation between corruption, democracy and transformation. The study deals with the societal accumulation, use and exchange of wealth and power in the context of a substantive transformation and seeks to assess the ways a transformation society and its economy are governed. It is designed as a study of the quality of the established model of democracy, focusing on the governance capacities of the newest EU-member state--Bulgaria to effectively counter corruption.

The collapse of the ancient regime in November 1989 and the nature of the Bulgarian transformation to a liberal, "western" democracy opened up many institutional and judicial deficiencies that were loaded with tremendous corruption potential. Corruption however, began to be perceived as one of the major societal problems in democratically governed Bulgaria, only after the stabilization following the economic breakdown in 1997, when the people's worries about their immediate survival were alleviated. According to opinion polls since 1997 corruption was normally placed, after the low incomes and the unemployment, on the third place of the worst hardships of democracy. More shocking was the result of the last corruption monitoring report, carried out by the nongovernmental organisation "Center for the Study of Democracy", showing that as of January 2007, 54% of the respondents perceive corruption, for the first time in the last 10 years as the most important societal problem. (2) Bribery scandals at all political levels, imperfect jurisdiction and internal security bottlenecks brought so much importance to the issue of corruption that in the fall of 2006 it still seemed like Bulgaria's accession to the EU would be delayed, precisely because of the widespread corruption.

Notwithstanding the problems, Bulgaria succeeded to join the union on the 1st of January 2007 as planned, whereas the Commission installed monitoring measures, unprecedented for its enlargement history. The mechanism for verification of the progress of Bulgaria to address specific benchmarks was established to assure further control over the pace of the judicial reforms and the fight against corruption and organized crime.

The scope of corruption in Bulgaria

Despite the difficulties to diagnose corruption and its impact, I will try to draft a snap-shot of the actual volume of corruption in Bulgaria, relying on the findings of international (the EU-Commission and Transparency International) and local (Center for the Study of Democracy, statistics of the Ministry of Interior) observers.

Since the late 90es corruption was one of the most criticized issues in the regular reports of the EU-Commission on Bulgaria's progress towards accession. The report from 2005 was perceived as a sensation, because for the first time Bulgaria's performance was jugged worse than that of the other EU-accession candidate--Romania. Besides, also for the first time, the Commission identified the "week results" in the investigation and prosecution of corruption on the "highest political levels" as the "main problem" in anticorruption. (3) The assessment of the report from September 2006 was even more negative, requesting the presentation of "clear evidence of results" in investigating and prosecuting cases of high-level corruption, as a condition for the accession in January 2006. (4) Bulgaria entered the union as planned, but the Commission established a grave mechanism for verification of Bulgaria's progress to address six specific benchmarks in the areas of judicial reform and the fight against corruption and organized crime.

According to the 2006 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) issued annually by Transparency International, Bulgaria turned back to its corruption level form 2002. (5) With 4.0 points and place 57 in the international comparative corruption scale the level of the perceived corruption spread in 2006 is better than that of Poland, Turkey, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. However, a rating of around 3 points is assumed as indication of deeply rooted, systemic corruption. Thus the 2006 CPI lines up Bulgaria next to countries like El Salvador and Columbia, where corruption is perceived to be the "rule". This means that the problem of the effective fight against corruption is essential for Bulgaria.

The national assessments of the spread of the phenomenon show similar results. In 1997 the nongovernmental organisation "Center for the Study of Democracy" developed an excellent Corruption Monitoring System (CMS) for annual assessment of the spread of corruption in the country. The results from 2007 on administrative corruption reveal positive trends. The most alarming tendency, however, is that both the business and the citizenry perceive the so called "grand corruption" (6) (amongst members of the government, members of the parliament, mayors) as growing and becoming better institutionalized through the so called "loops of companies", or "party rings". (7) The study's assessment is that "given the current environment of virtual impunity for political corruption, there is a real threat that the opportunities of the EU membership will be hijacked by private interests. " (8) The annual loss thought corrupt transactions is estimated to the amount of 2 Milliard Levs per year, which exceeds the expected annual EU-allocation. (9)

The statistics of the Ministry of Interior, as reported by the media show that in 2006 a total of 188 (10) criminals were jugged on grounds of corruption crimes. At the same time the research of the Center for the Study of Democracy measures more than 110 000--115 000 (11) corrupt transactions per month. According to a study of the Ministry of Justice on the corruption sentences issued, the majority of convicted are financial auditors or accountants, with usual amounts abused ranging from 250 to 300 US $ and only in 4,2% of the cases--from 5 000 to 10 000 US$. (12)

Another alarming tendency is the number of the commissioned murders--173 for the period 1992-2005 (13). None of them has been disclosed, respectively no effective sentence has been issued. With regard to the grand-corruption, in its report to the EU-Commission from June 2006 the government reported to have launched investigations against two high-level officials, one from the Ministry of Agriculture and another from the Ministry of Interior. (14) In addition, seven MPs lost their immunity on grounds of corruption allegations. (15) Yet, up to now there is no evidence of effectively prosecuted and jugged grand-corruption crimes.

The state seems powerless in the face of "grand corruption". At the same time, Bulgaria is perceived to be a democratic country with functioning institutions, which have met the political criteria for EU-membership as far back as in the year 1997. The values of the international democracy indexes also signify the positive development of the democracy in Bulgaria. This evidence creates the impression that Bulgaria is a well developed country in political and economic terms, on its best way to establish sound and sustainable democracy. Against the background of the outlined statistics on corruption spread in the recent years of transformation, the daily reports on corruption scandals that flood the media and the high number of unsolved commissioned killings, the question about the actual preparedness of Bulgaria, now as an EU-member state, to effectively and in foreseeable future counter political corruption gains crucial importance.

Main questions

Conditions, impact and consequences of corruption over Bulgaria's politics are the main research areas of my study, while the notion of sustainable democracy will be used as a fundamental point of reference. Further, the research is focused on the exploration of the topic of political corruption and does not deal with other forms of the phenomenon such as low-level or administrative corruption, corruption in the business sector, in the education system, in the customs etc. (16)

Taking into account the levels of corruption spread in Bulgaria since 1989, measured by international and local observers and the considerable volume of high-level corruption, I manly address the following question: Why does Bulgaria fail to effectively counter political corruption, despite the large scale anticorruption campaign, launched in the course of the democratization and Europeanization processes of the last years?

I suggest that the state failure in anticorruption corresponds directly to the quality of the established (achieved) democratic model...

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