Research Project

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Research Project CRIME AND CULTURE THE EUROPEAN
COMISSION 6TH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME
CRIME AS CULTURE CROATIA 2006 SCIENTIFIC REPORT
THE FIRST PHASE Bucharest, 34 November 2006
Štulhofer, A. Kufrin, K. Caldarovic,
O.Maršic, T. Gregurovic, M. Odak, I. M.
Detelic
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INTRODUCTION ANTICORRUPTION MEASURES
PERCEPTION OF CORRUPTION IN CROATIA AN OVERVIEW
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• A BRIEF HISTORY
• major social, political and economic
  transformations during the past 16 years,
  affected by the
• cultural legacy of state socialism
• disruptions and costs caused by the 19911995 war
• slow and party controlled process of
  institutional reforms, especially in respect to
  privatization
• authoritarian and clientelist regime of the late
  president Tudjman
• led to systematic irregularities within economic
  subsystem and to a number of anomalies in public
  services
• result widespread perception that corruption is
  ubiquitous

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• 20002006 growing political stability,
  strengthening of democratic institutions,
  improving standard of living
• but the public perception of corruption increased

• World Values Survey CroatiaSouth East European
  Social Survey Project
• "most" of public servants are corrupt
• 1995 66 2003 7

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• Transparency International Croatia surveys
• corruption in Croatia is "extremely
  widespread"
• 2003 48 2005 7
• corruption is "somewhat less present than three
  years ago"
• 2003 17 2005 7
• corruption is "a lot more present than before"
• 2003 12 2005 7

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• Global Corruption Barometer
• "the level of corruption will increase over the
  next 3 years
• 2004 13
• 2005 17

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• in contrast to the surveys, crime statistics
  suggest a decrease in corrupt activities
• 2001 646 corruption related crimes were
  officially recorded
• 2002 430 recorded cases
• 2003 329 recorded cases
• 2004 266 recorded cases
• 2005 442 recorded cases

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• personal experience of corruption
• 1996 (Social Capital in Croatia) 28
  experienced corruption in health system
• 2004 (GCB) 9 of households with direct
  experience of corruption
• lowlevel corruption and its cultural
  acceptability
• "corruption could sometimes be justified"
• 1995 (WWS Croatia) 40
• 1999 (EVS Croatia) 25

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• due to differences in question format and
  operationalization used in various surveys, it is
  hard to establish trends in public perception of
  corruption reliably
• although Croatias TI Index rank is rather low
  and has been worsening since 2001 (3.5 in 2004,
  ranked 57th on the list of 145 countries),no
  systematic research on corruption exists in
  Croatia, side from the Transparency International
  GCB annual surveys started a few years ago

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• State response to corruption
• unsufficient, although a progress has been made
  (primarily in the legislative area)
• main deficiencies
• low level of administrative capacity for
  fighting corruption
• missing legislation on the financing of
  political parties
• practical failure of USKOK
• monitoring problems
• insufficient transparency, oversight and
  accountability of the state
• lack of coordination between the authorities
  responsible for anticorruption activities
• lack of training in financial investigation
• insufficient training and education for civil
  servants and other administrative employees
• negligible number of sanctioned corruption cases

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• CURRENT SITUATION
• March 2006 the government launched the new
  National AntiCorruption Program (first National
  AntiCorruption Program was adopted in 2002)
• the event was carefully staged to accentuate its
  importance and to send a clear and loud message
  to the EU
• the action plans envisioned by the new strategy
  were promptly developed by the assigned
  Ministries
• the central anticorruption office (USKOK) was
  finally approved for new job openings, and has
  expanded its operations (several highly
  publicized cases of corruption were processed by
  USKOK recently)
• the new law on the financing political parties is
  expected to be passed by the Parliament in 2006

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DATA GENERATION
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• RESEARCH MATERIALS
• collected mostly during MarchMay 2006 period
• materials from all six target groups were
  collected
• problem police and economy target groups (only a
  few documents were collected)
• project database contain a wide range of
  documents, including newspaper articles, the
  parliamentary and a municipal assembly
  proceedings, strategic analyses, annual reports
  of various state offices, the text of the new
  National AntiCorruption Program, public speeches
  made by the PM, Minister of Justice and the
  leader of the largest union in the country, NGO
  publications and reports, etc
• a significant portion of relevant documents were
  made available only after direct (personal)
  contacts were established with institutions in
  question

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• CASE STUDIES
• two cases studies have been selected from a
  larger pool of potential cases that came up
  through interviews with several local experts
• CASE A (highlevel corruption)
• financing issues related to the last
  presidential campaign
• CASE B (lowlevel corruption)
• corruption in homes for the elderly in the city
  of Zagreb

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• CASE A
• presidential elections in January 2005
• 13 candidates
• main target of the analysis financial aspect of
  the campaign
• alleged irregularities were reported by the media
  and a NGO
• the scandal unrealistically small advertising
  budget reported by the ruling party candidate
  (just the cost of TV ads seemed larger than the
  sum officially reported by the candidates office)

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main focuses of the analysis a. the presentation
of the case by the media and by civil society b.
the earlier process of adopting the Bill on the
Financing of Presidential Elections in the
Parliament in 2004
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• CASE B
• admittance in homes for the elderly is free of
  charge and it is based on waiting lists
• the case a client of a HE contacted a NGO (PSD)
  and reported number of irregularities
• NGO investigated the case and notified the local
  government
• PSD popular newspaper campaign "Stop
  corruption" further indications of criminal
  activities in the city HE's

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• an inspection of the Ministry of Health, Work and
  Social Care reported irregularities in the Centre
• Municipal State Attorney's Office to open the
  case against the manager of HECentre
• court ruling not guilty ("in spite of the fact
  that illegal activities were committed, who was
  responsible for them could not be established
  beyond the reasonable doubt")
• the verdict was later annulled and the case
  transferred to the County court where it is still
  in procedure
• USKOK started investigating several HEs in
  Zagreb the investigation is still ongoing

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• DATA COLLECTION
• the materials relevant for the CASE A covered
  four target groups politics, the legal system,
  the media and civil society
• no case related documents for the two other
  target groups (the police and economy) were found
• the documents collected for the case study A were
  dated from April 2004 to July 2005
• the same four target groups were documented in
  the analysis of the CASE B
• some of the documents regarding the legal system
  were unavailable (related court case is still in
  procedure) and no case relevant materials could
  be found for the police and economy
• the documents related to the study B covered the
  20032005 period
• for the missing target groups, general material
  on corruption was used instead

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METHODS
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• PREPARATION FOR THE RESEARCH
• March 2006 two training workshops
• 1st GT outline examples of research
• 2nd working with ATLAS.ti
• March, April, and May 2006 several project team
  meetings have been organized to discuss
• selection of materials to be coded
• problems regarding (un)availability of the
  relevant materials
• doubts regarding coding procedure
• problems with ATLAS.ti software

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• CODING
• on the project consortium meeting in Istanbul,
  project teams have been instructed to "stick to
  the text" and to apply the codes that respect the
  text as much as possible
• initial coding (research assistants)
• in-vivo or open codes were used
• had to figure out "What does the text
  say?"(not "What does it really mean?")
• no more than two levels of codes (in GT
  terminology codes and categories), both
  respecting the manifest level of text

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• special attention was devoted to
• possible (even quite fragmentary) definitions
  of corruption
• elements of the corruption perception patterns
• what are the causes of corruption
• is corruption considered to be a significant
  social problem in Croatian society and why
• who are the victims
• who is perceived as corrupt
• how to fight corruption
• who should do what
• (no strict codes have been imposed)

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• to improve the reliability of coding
• two research assistants coded each document
  independently
• codes were compared, difference discussed and
  codes finally applied to the document were set by
  consensus
• dilemmas and disagreements were resolved on
  project meetings or through consultations with
  senior researchers
• senior researchers revision of codes and
  additional coding with eventual application of
  higher level codes
• on the basis of final codes applied, several
  distinct models of understanding corruption were
  built

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RESULTS PERCEPTIONS OF CORRUPTION
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• (A) TARGET GROUP POLITICS
• Case A
• the emphasis was on the process of adopting the
  law on the financing of electoral advertising in
  presidential elections
• the analysis was concentrated on two key primary
  documents both dated before the Bill was finally
  passed
• a. an open letter from the President
• b. the transcript of the parliamentary debate
  concerning the above mentioned law

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• Case B
• two primary documents were used
• a. the official letter by the City Office for
  Health etc.
• b. the document from the Ministry of Health
  reporting on the results of the inspection

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• Summary analysis
• the pattern of governmental position could be
  revisited in the speech given by the Prime
  Minister, on the occasion of launching the new
  National Anticorruption Program
• four major issues were emphasized
• 1. when dealing with the state, citizens should
  not feel helpless anymore
• 2. we are fighting corruption because of our
  internal needs and not because of external
  pressures (the EU conditionality)
• 3. the main characteristic of the new strategy is
  its participative and integrative approach
• 4. corruption is universal it is not
  specifically the Croatian problem

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• the prevailing perception of corruption in the
  target group politics remains unclear
• 1. on local levels (the case study B) corruption
  is perceived as a nuisance
• 2. among the highest-ranking politicians it is
  primarily tactical, i.e. oriented towards
  maintenance of power and credibility building

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• (B) TARGET GROUP LEGAL SYSTEM
• Case A
• analysis of the case study concerning the
  financing of the presidential campaign was based
  on three public statements issued by the State
  Electoral Committee
• they clearly pointed out that the electoral
  committee feels powerless and with no authority
  in solving problems
• Case B
• the document analysed the Annual 2004 Report of
  the Office for Combating Corruption and Organized
  Crime
• The court case left many questions opened...

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• Summary analysis
• negative effects of the widespread public
  perception of corruption within legal system
• substantial delays in court ruling - fertile
  ground for corruption
• the position of the legal system seems complex
  and insufficiently clear
• parts of the legal system systematically
  underestimate the presence of corruption within
  the system

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• (C) TARGET GROUP POLICE
• a single document from the Ministry of Interior
  an analysis of institutional capacity and an
  assessment of future needs and goals, as
  requested by the government during the process of
  preparing the new National Anti-Corruption
  Program (adopted in 2006)
• the mentioning of internal corruption was limited
  to the low-level type, associated with a
  relatively small number of traffic and border
  police officers

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focused on the prevention of
corruption trust building between citizens and
the police criminalization of bribe
offering focus on organizational
improvements pragmatic approach - corruption is
perceived as serious and potentially explosive
societal problem
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• (D) TARGET GROUP MEDIA
• Case A
• three primary documents covering financing of the
  presidential campaign.
• a. "political scandal" involving the state TV
• b. an article attempted to identify the motives
  beneath the President plea for the new law
• c. a document gave voice to the criticism of the
  new Bill on the Financing of Presidential
  Election
• Case B
• the case of Zagreb HEs the perception of
  corruption in media reports was primarily latent
  the journalists refrained from explicit
  accusations or condemnation

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• Summary analysis
• the media expressed a highly alert and critical
  stance towards corruption
• the media shared common assumptions about
  corruption and its impact with the NGO

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• (E) TARGET GROUP CIVIL SOCIETY
• Case A
• the reports of two NGOs, GONG and Transparency
  International Croatia (TIC) were analysed
• the reports represent reactions to the Bill on
  the financing of Presidential Elections
• Case B
• the primary documents - three press releases and
  two annual reports issued by the Partnership for
  Social Development (PSD)
• the scandal in HE has highlighted corrupt
  networks of power that effectively victimize
  ordinary citizens

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• Summary analysis
• civil society representatives displayed a highly
  critical approach
• the criticism is based on the principle of the
  centrality of human rights, openly dealt with
  political corruption
• the prevailing understanding of corruption -
  anchored in human rights paradigm
• almost automatic suspicion toward those in power

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• (F) TARGET GROUP ECONOMY
• three documents corruption on the part of the
  economically relevant institutions, the Croatian
  Employers Association (CEA) and the Independent
  Croatian Unions (ICU).
• insight into attitudes towards and perceptions of
  corruption.
• the CEA believes that the corruption is a
  systemic phenomenon,
• the most troublesome aspects cultural tradition
  that supports it

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• the ICU material - only general comments about
  corruption
• the legal system and economy target groups share
  similar perceptions of corruption
• anti-corruption steps taken so far were
  recognized as important, but insufficient

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CONCLUSIONS TAXONOMIC SUMMARY OF THE
FINDINGS GROUP-SPECIFIC CONCEPTUALISATIONS AND
PERCEPTIONS OF CORRUPTION IN CROATIA
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• THE CASE STUDIES
• CASE STUDY A
• two wider group coalitions emerge, each with
  specific normative belief system concerning the
  public character of the financial issues of the
  2005 presidential elections
• 1st the government, the parliamentary majority
  and the majority of members of the managing board
  of the Croatian public TV. Major aspect less
  transparent law seemed not to be a problem
• 2nd the political opposition, expert groups,
  the civil society and the State Electoral
  Committee, the body responsible for the legality
  of election process
• major aspect a consensus regarding the basic
  measures that need to be enacted to clear and
  enforce the rules of political financing

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• two opposing perceptions or models of corruption
  in this case study
• a. the PR model (impression management)
• taking steps that will result in a positive
  public opinion impact
• efficient message about political commitment to
  combating corruption
• b. the Expert model (professional responsibility)
  
• professional expertise
• rich understanding of corruption
• technically sophisticated solutions to the
  problem
• sometimes insufficiently sensitive to
  (political) context and the existing
  institutional capacity

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• CASE STUDY B
• two models of understanding of corruption
• a. the Nuisance model
• avoidance
• corruption as a little more than a nuisance
• minimize problems and costs associated with
  corruption
• b. the Human Rights model
• characteristic of civil society
• focuses primarily on individual costs and
  personal responsibility
• the importance of fundamental role of civic
  sector

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• PERCEPTIONS OF CORRUPTION IN CROATIA
• several models can be described in regard to four
  main dimensions
• (1) the Public Relations model
• main elements
• simplified, populist and/or one-dimensional
  definition(s) of corruption
• corruption - primarily damaging for public
  image of the institution/actors in question
• measures for fighting corruption are evaluated
  according to the PR efficiency criteria
• focuses mostly on low-level corruption

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• (2) the Expert model
• main elements
• complex and comprehensive definition(s) of
  corruption
• corruption is damaging socio-cultural fabric of
  society and is economically wasteful
• measures for fighting corruption are based on
  best international practice
• focuses on high-level or political corruption

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• (3) the Nuisance model
• main elements
• no clear definition of corruption
• corruption is a minor and omnipresent issue
  that has been overblown
• measures for fighting corruption should be ad
  hoc and situation-specific
• the focus is usually missing when unavoidable,
  it is mostly on low-level corruption

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• (4) the Human Rights model
• main elements
• a comprehensive definition emphasizing human
  rights and individual responsibility
• corruption is moral, socio-cultural and
  economic evil
• measures for fighting corruption should be
  extremely rigorous, transparent and inclusive
• focuses on both low-level and high-level
  corruption

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Two additional models could be also suggested by
the documents unrelated to our case studies

• (5) the Pragmatic model
• main elements
• comprehensive definition linked to legal
  description
• corruption is a major social problem
• revolves around the imperative of curbing
  corruption
• biased towards activities that deal almost
  exclusively with manageable corruption
• the strategy is simple concentrate on what is
  manageable and avoid what is not
• measures for fighting corruption need to be
  systematic, coordinated, and assisted by
  international aid

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• (6) the Ignoring model
• main elements
• overlooking the phenomenon of corruption
• usually ad hoc and declaratory definition(s)
• becomes problematic when it severely impedes
  governance
• measures for fighting corruption are largely
  absent
• corruption is marginalized and underestimated
• a combination of the extreme version of the P
  model ("corruption is unmanageable") and the N
  model ("corruption is but a minor issue")

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• precautions
• models need to be seen primarily as Weberian
  ideal types
• in reality, models can be found only in
  fragments
• it would be mistaken to assume that each target
  group could be neatly represented by a single
  model
• most target groups were characterized by
  several different models
• by a number of elements taken from different
  models of corruption

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• linkages between the models and target groups
• the PR model
• target group politics
• within the government and the ruling party
• partially in the legal system target group
• the P model
• politics, police, partially civil society
• the N model
• city government and administration (target
  group politics)

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the I model target group economy partially
also with the legal system the E model in a
number of target groups - civil society (the case
A), the media (the case A), politics (the
parliamentary opposition) and partially economy,
the legal system (the new national
anti-corruption strategy) and the police the HR
model with civil society (the case B), politics
(Ombudsmans report) and the media (the case B)
target groups
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• conclusions are tentative at best
• in some cases documents collected proved
  insufficient for producing conclusions
• in some other instances the character of
  documents analysed were unsuitable or too
  ambivalent for reaching any definite conclusion
• the linkages between the (ideal-typical) models
  and the six target groups need to be taken with
  great caution
• in the next project phase (2007), existing data
  will be complemented by additional and more
  detailed information collected through interviews
  with key informants from all six-target groups
• the additional data should clarify the existence
  and attribution of the proposed models of
  understanding corruption