Seven Arguments in Favour of Rethinking Corruption

The act of “rethinking” corruption is necessary due to a global stagnation after more than two decades of international anticorruption efforts. The issue of corruption is being reframed as a security issue, rather than a developmental one, but the role international agency play in changing a country is still prominent. This article sums up the lessons learned from theoretical and practical advances outlined in the author’s book on “Rethinking Corruption.” It makes a clear argument in favour of rethinking corruption outside the traditional framework and offers a forecasting method, alongside state-of-the-art analytical, fact-based tools to map, assess, and predict corruption risks. The author argues that corruption is a policy issue frequently overriding individual choice, and can only be tackled by strong policy interventions. She explains the limits of international intervention and demonstrates how much unfinished business was left behind by the developmental approach to anticorruption – business that can only be tackled domestically by pro-change coalitions. Evidence is shown that corruption has not decreased despite unprecedented efforts. This is the case because the international context presently creates far more opportunities for corruption than it poses constraints. Few countries and international organisations have proven able to solve the social dilemma of corruption. The instruments to collect evidence for action have been as poor as conceptualisation, but progress has been made and can be used by domestic coalitions seeking to challenge a corrupt status quo. The article outlines that “Rethinking Corruption” is a non-orthodox, yet state-of-the-art guidebook for policy makers, administrators, and practitioners looking to identify an effective way of approaching corruption, engaging in corruption issue policy analysis, designing actionable measurement, and building successful coalitions against systemic corruption

If the European Union wishes to increase its standing with the public, improved performance and greater accountability will be required

In recent years, the European Union appears to have been in perennial fire-fighting mode. During this time, there has been a noted decline in the public’s trust for EU institutions. Here, Alina Mungiu-Pippidi argues that while more accountability is important, the main thing that the EU can do to regain lost trust is to perform better, and suggests some practical reforms that could be undertaken to bring this about

THE EFFICIENCY OF IMPLEMENTING PRIVATE MANAGEMENT IN STATE COMPANIES

In 2012, nine state-owned companies are expected to have private management giving up the statemanagement. Therefore, a full debate of this issue is required, taking into consideration the fact that, in ouropinion, this process involves more than just the replacement of a manager with another. The implementationof private management in companies of national strategy, currently in state ownership, is desired to be aprofound and also very complex process, aiming to change organizational culture in depth, both verticallyand horizontally, so as to increase efficiency in these companies.Implementation of private management could be a good opportunity for an efficient development ofthese companies, for an increasing level of competitiveness on the international market, but only in terms ofa leadership team chosen on performance criteria, with a coherent set of objectives and a high independencelevel of decision.There are some opinions from people with experience in managing both private and statecompanies. They believe that the idea of establishing a private management in state companies, is, in themain, good, but it is essential to take into consideration the idea of a team trained to lead the company,instead of one person as a general manager.Another element to be taken into account, so that this idea of private management may have thedesired effect, is to precisely determine companies where private management teams should be installed. Notall companies are suitable for the same private management strategy. This type of leadership is better forcompanies with a real international perspective, such as Tarom, while strategic companies should be ratherreformed, including management privatization, and kept as state strategic areas. However, strict criteria ofstate intervention in decision-making process should be established, a striking question concerning thecircumstances under which such a management team could be successful, given that state firms are stronglypoliticized

ROLE OF HUMAN CAPITAL INVESTMENT IN A COMPETITIVE ECONOMY

This paper wants an analysis of investment in human capital as an important resource in the economy. The paper also seeks to strengthen the argument that this resource plays an important role in a competitive economy. The essence of the idea of human capital investment is made in human resources to improve their productivity. Costs are incurred in the expectation of future benefits, hence the term "investment" in human resources. Like all investments, and there is no question if economically justified. The answer to this question depends on whether or not the benefits outweigh the costs by an amount satisfactory or not they apply standard investment criteria