A Culture of Corruption?: Coping with Government in Post-Communist Europe

There is wide agreement that democracy should provide citizens with more than a small share of influence over central government. A democratic system should ensure that citizens are treated with fairness and respect by government officials. Based upon a plethora of surveys and in-depth interviews with government officials and citizens, this book focuses on issues such as bribery, corruption, inefficiency and freedom of information, in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

A major strength of A Culture of Corruption is that the authors go beyond analysing public perceptions and behavior and look at public attitudes towards proposals for reform. The authors reveal how the problem of citizens’ interactions with officials varies in kind as well as in degree across the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

A Culture of Corruption provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive account of how citizens cope with state officials in post-communist Europe, how they feel about their dealings with these officials and what support they give to proposals for reform.