How the political capture of state owned enterprises is damaging democracy in Central and Eastern Europe

Corruption is still viewed as a key problem in many states across Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing on recent research in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Romania, Clara Volintiru, Bianca Toma and Alexandru Damian highlight the problem of political actors using resources from state owned companies to help win elections. They argue that a widespread lack of accountability in managing public resources is threatening the quality of democracy in these states.

This article is a summary of a project entitled State-Owned Companies – Preventing Corruption and State Capture in which the authors have evaluated the extent of state capture and the nature of mechanisms for extracting public resources for private or political interests in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Romania.

Project: State Capture http://www.statecapture.eu/

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