Constructive informal institution of civil society vs. destructive informal institution of corruption: the Polish experience of inter-institutional confrontation.

Abstract

The article investigates the role of the constructive informal institution of civil society in anticorruption counteraction. It emphasizes that the civic activism can become a driving force in preventing dishonesty in politics, while the inertia of civil society leads to “shadowing” of politics, causing a corruption “capture” of the state by interested political and economic actors. The potential of the civil society in the implementation of anti-corruption mechanisms is shown on the example of Poland. The author studies: the formation of the Polish civil society and factors that influenced its evolution; the scale of political and other types of corruption in this country; changes in the dynamics of corruption practices; the specific role of the civil society institutions in counteracting corruption in Poland.

Attention is paid to the level of corruption in Poland and its main manifestation. The study investigates the activities of the Polish civil society institution as anti-corruption counteraction actors. It is noted that there are few associations and foundations focusing on the anti-corruption activity. The political parties and media pay more attention to the issue of corruption. It reports the projects of the Stefan Batory Foundation, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Association of the Leaders of Local Public Groups, and Transparency International Poland. The successful anti-corruption projects of the civil society include the “Responsible State” program of the Stefan Batory Foundation (the “Barometer of corruption risk in government procurement” monitoring, “Monitoring of candidates for public offices” etc.). It is noted that the Polish “third sector” does not have stable funding; government funds dominate in the budgets of organizations, which is a disadvantage for anti-corruption NGOs. It is emphasized that the Polish citizens were rarely mobilized specifically against corruption, although some other issues (such as the judicial reform, tightening of the abortion law etc.) caused mass protests. The author notes a low level of involvement of the Polish “third sector” in the development of anti-corruption policy. At the same time, it is emphasized that Poland is a good example for Ukraine of how the vector of state development changes thanks to the active civil society and attention is drawn to the problems of good governance.