Political Corruption in Eastern Europe: Politics after Communism. By Tatiana Kostadinova. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2012. 303p. $62.50.

Extract

More than 20 years ago, when Eastern European countries embarked on their corruption-prone transitions from communism, Robert Klitgaard (Adjusting to Reality: Beyond “State versus Market” in Economic Development, 1991), once designated the “world's leading expert on corruption” (in The Christian Science Monitor, March 2, 1994), proposed the abandonment of the search for the “many, many causes and conditions” of corruption. In despair at what he saw as academic hair splitting in the burgeoning study of corruption, he claimed to be more “pragmatic” by focusing instead on ways by which policy and management could reduce corruption. In hindsight, Klitgaard's intellectual impatience appears ironic as the debate on the causes of corruption was only about to commence, resulting in an expanding list of suggested causes—often derived from Eastern European experiences.