PROSPECTS FOR FIGHTING CORRUPTION IN POST-SOCIALIST COUNTRIES:
THE
CASES OF HUNGARY AND RUSSIA
February 2003 - January 2004.
Collaborative project with the Foundation for Market Economy (FME, Budapest) and the Transitional Crime and Corruption Center in the American University (TraCCC, Washington) within the frame of Think Tank Partnership Program.
Project coordinator: Irina Olimpieva.
The Russian part of the project was focused on the study of informal relationships between business and authority in the sphere of small and medium business.
SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH "SMALL BUSINESS AND THE PROBLEM OF CORRUPTION"
Participants: Irina Olimpieva, Oleg Pachenkov, Elena Nikiforova.
Supported by USAID, IRIS и KPMG Consulting Barents Group.
The main research tasks:
- 1. to find out how businessmen evaluate the level of corruption (in the country, in their business sphere);
- 2. try to understand what businessmen mean under the term of 'corruption', what kind of relationships between businessmen and officials are considered as 'corruptive';
- 3. to find out the real scale of corruption practices (in terms of level of authority, type of bureaucratic services etc.);
- 4. to find out how businessmen resist (or not resist) bureaucratic extortion;
- 5. to find out attitudes of businessmen towards anti-corruption policy and anti-corruption organisations which are supposed to defend businessmen from the oppressive behavior of officials.
Quantitative study. The quantitative data came from a survey of business people in St. Petersburg. The survey included 355 respondents - top managers representing different types of business organisations in terms of size, form of ownership, and sphere of activity. 59,7% of respondents were men and 40,2% women. The structure of the sample according to the age of respondents is the following:
- 1. under 25 - 4,1 %
- 2. 26-35 - 29,9 %
- 3. 36-45 - 34,6 %
- 4. 46-55 - 28,4 %
- 5. 56 - - 3,0 %
58,8 % of respondents are the owners of the enterprises, 33,7 % work in
the firm on constant basis; 5,4 % on contractual basis; 2,1 % on verbal
agreement.
For the processing of quantitative data, standard methods of
statistical analysis were implemented.
Qualitative analysis was based on 30 in-depth interviews with
business representatives - top managers and key persons in different kinds
of business organisations. Since the research topic was very sensitive and
personal trust was a necessary precondition for establishing contact with
an informant, we applied a 'snow-ball' technique, starting with our
personal networks and moving outwards to interview contacts our initial
contacts gave us.
The following businesses are presented in interviews:
- trading (including food) - 11 interviews;
- production (including construction) - 5 interviews;
- services (including cafes, security (stocks etc.), business & law consulting etc.) - 14 interviews.
PROJECT MATERIALS:
- Essay
1: General overview of recent corruption research results and main
research approaches to corruption in Russia using domestic sources of
information
Essay 2: General overview of international comparative studies on assessment of corruption (methodology, indexes and some data on Russia and Hungary)
Essay 3: Pre-transitional and Transitional Roots of Corruption in Russia
Essay 4: The Current Situation regarding anticorruption policies in Russia
- Conference in Budapest: Presentation by Oleg Pachenkov
- Conference in Slovenia: Presentation