In 2001,Ethiopia established a centralised anti-corruption agency(ACA),the Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission(FEACC),purportedly to be used for curbing the rampant corruption.By the government’s repeated a...In 2001,Ethiopia established a centralised anti-corruption agency(ACA),the Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission(FEACC),purportedly to be used for curbing the rampant corruption.By the government’s repeated admissions,corruption continues to engulf the country,indicating the failure of the FEACC to curb corruption.Various researchers attribute the FEACC’s failures to curb corruption to a host of reasons.This article follows a different route to show why the FEACC was doomed to fail from the outset.We show that the war against corruption in Ethiopia collapsed mainly because of mischaracterisation of the nature of corruption in the country and how the FEACC was established–a conventional anti-corruption agency for a nonconventional problem of corruption.We deploy some testable hypotheses to explore the scenarios under which an anticorruption agency would be effective.Drawing from the corruption literature of post-communist countries,the article shows that corrupt Ethiopian practices can easily be subsumed under an extreme version of the highest form of corruption known as state capture.The article then moves onto unpacking the systemic and predatory nature of the Ethiopian corruption conundrum and how the FEACC approached in tackling it.Doing so allows us to illustrate the endogenous nature of the country’s corruption patterns and why a traditional ACA is incapable of tackling a state-driven patronage.It also lays out the flawed structures and practices of the FEACC showing why,under a state-crafted corruption conundrum,the FEACC was doomed to fail from the start.The article concludes by illustrating the detrimental effects of using the agency as a political weapon to neutralise the ruling party’s political opponents as well as the failure of the war against corruption.It calls for a different approach in combating the Ethiopian systemic corruption,a governance regime change being one of them.展开更多
In 2010,the Hungarian government established so-called“illiberal democracy.”Western courtiers have looked on with bewilderment over the past eight years at this political trajectory of Hungary.Some post-Communist co...In 2010,the Hungarian government established so-called“illiberal democracy.”Western courtiers have looked on with bewilderment over the past eight years at this political trajectory of Hungary.Some post-Communist countries that were committed to common European values,have already been implementing this illiberal democracy model.The perceived interests of the“nation”are taking centre stage and governments are subject to far fewer checks and balances.They are turning instead towards an alternative social,political,and economic model,in which the cultivation of traditional values and distinct national identities are of paramount ideological importance.This new model is frequently characterised by widespread,systematic state corruption,and an increasingly authoritarian political culture.The paper tries to shed light on the reasons of development of illiberal democracy in the European Union by examining the case in Hungary.Furthermore,the paper defines the price of partially giving up certain principles of liberal democracy,such as checks and balances,political pluralism,economic equality of market constituents,or the rule of law,in return of hoped greater economic and state efficiency.展开更多
There has been a long tradition in the history of Hungarian intellectuals that dates as far back as the 1930s.It became well-known as the clash between the“populist”(nepies)and“urbanite”(urbanus)camps as two facti...There has been a long tradition in the history of Hungarian intellectuals that dates as far back as the 1930s.It became well-known as the clash between the“populist”(nepies)and“urbanite”(urbanus)camps as two factions of the intellectual classes or status groups.However,the author’s historical investigations show that this clash originated during the first reform period of Hungarian history(1830-1848),when the“Centralists”under the leadership of József Eötvös confronted the“Municipalists”whose leading figure was Lajos Kossuth.The former group represented the Western Europe oriented faction,who heavily called into question the county system,while the members of the latter group warranted it as the bulwark of the Hungarian constitution.The conflict was renewed between the two world wars as“westernizing”urbanites opposed the“Magyar”-oriented populists.Also,after the regime change in the 1990s,this old clash posited itself politically first as the strife between the Hungarian Democratic Forum and the Free Democrats and later on it got the form of a European-oriented Leftist-Liberal wing facing the moderate Right.The desperate struggle between the two political wings appeared at the local level as well.The author describes a paradigmatic case of the overall contradiction in a case study.During the local elections in a Hungarian village the post-communist mayor was forced to run against a traditionally religious mayor,while the entire village population,including civil society,followed the desperate clash up to an unserviceable stage.At this point,a third mayor candidate stepped in competing with both former enemies and won the exceptional election.The new mayor transcended both the post-communist era and the oppositional mayor of traditional religious background,for as the great-grand child of a landowner in the period preceding the Second World War who was persecuted in the Communist era;this mayor restituted the continuity with the ancient landowner class.And at the same time,while jettisoning the old-fashioned religion,she exhibited a certain attachment to a new type,as it were,a postmodern religiosity.展开更多
文摘In 2001,Ethiopia established a centralised anti-corruption agency(ACA),the Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission(FEACC),purportedly to be used for curbing the rampant corruption.By the government’s repeated admissions,corruption continues to engulf the country,indicating the failure of the FEACC to curb corruption.Various researchers attribute the FEACC’s failures to curb corruption to a host of reasons.This article follows a different route to show why the FEACC was doomed to fail from the outset.We show that the war against corruption in Ethiopia collapsed mainly because of mischaracterisation of the nature of corruption in the country and how the FEACC was established–a conventional anti-corruption agency for a nonconventional problem of corruption.We deploy some testable hypotheses to explore the scenarios under which an anticorruption agency would be effective.Drawing from the corruption literature of post-communist countries,the article shows that corrupt Ethiopian practices can easily be subsumed under an extreme version of the highest form of corruption known as state capture.The article then moves onto unpacking the systemic and predatory nature of the Ethiopian corruption conundrum and how the FEACC approached in tackling it.Doing so allows us to illustrate the endogenous nature of the country’s corruption patterns and why a traditional ACA is incapable of tackling a state-driven patronage.It also lays out the flawed structures and practices of the FEACC showing why,under a state-crafted corruption conundrum,the FEACC was doomed to fail from the start.The article concludes by illustrating the detrimental effects of using the agency as a political weapon to neutralise the ruling party’s political opponents as well as the failure of the war against corruption.It calls for a different approach in combating the Ethiopian systemic corruption,a governance regime change being one of them.
文摘In 2010,the Hungarian government established so-called“illiberal democracy.”Western courtiers have looked on with bewilderment over the past eight years at this political trajectory of Hungary.Some post-Communist countries that were committed to common European values,have already been implementing this illiberal democracy model.The perceived interests of the“nation”are taking centre stage and governments are subject to far fewer checks and balances.They are turning instead towards an alternative social,political,and economic model,in which the cultivation of traditional values and distinct national identities are of paramount ideological importance.This new model is frequently characterised by widespread,systematic state corruption,and an increasingly authoritarian political culture.The paper tries to shed light on the reasons of development of illiberal democracy in the European Union by examining the case in Hungary.Furthermore,the paper defines the price of partially giving up certain principles of liberal democracy,such as checks and balances,political pluralism,economic equality of market constituents,or the rule of law,in return of hoped greater economic and state efficiency.
文摘There has been a long tradition in the history of Hungarian intellectuals that dates as far back as the 1930s.It became well-known as the clash between the“populist”(nepies)and“urbanite”(urbanus)camps as two factions of the intellectual classes or status groups.However,the author’s historical investigations show that this clash originated during the first reform period of Hungarian history(1830-1848),when the“Centralists”under the leadership of József Eötvös confronted the“Municipalists”whose leading figure was Lajos Kossuth.The former group represented the Western Europe oriented faction,who heavily called into question the county system,while the members of the latter group warranted it as the bulwark of the Hungarian constitution.The conflict was renewed between the two world wars as“westernizing”urbanites opposed the“Magyar”-oriented populists.Also,after the regime change in the 1990s,this old clash posited itself politically first as the strife between the Hungarian Democratic Forum and the Free Democrats and later on it got the form of a European-oriented Leftist-Liberal wing facing the moderate Right.The desperate struggle between the two political wings appeared at the local level as well.The author describes a paradigmatic case of the overall contradiction in a case study.During the local elections in a Hungarian village the post-communist mayor was forced to run against a traditionally religious mayor,while the entire village population,including civil society,followed the desperate clash up to an unserviceable stage.At this point,a third mayor candidate stepped in competing with both former enemies and won the exceptional election.The new mayor transcended both the post-communist era and the oppositional mayor of traditional religious background,for as the great-grand child of a landowner in the period preceding the Second World War who was persecuted in the Communist era;this mayor restituted the continuity with the ancient landowner class.And at the same time,while jettisoning the old-fashioned religion,she exhibited a certain attachment to a new type,as it were,a postmodern religiosity.
