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Confronting The Past: Corruption In Post-Communist Hungary And Romania, Michellie Hess
Confronting The Past: Corruption In Post-Communist Hungary And Romania, Michellie Hess
Honors Program Theses
Why are some states more corrupt than others? More specifically, why is post-communist Romania significantly more corrupt than post-communist Hungary even though both transitioned to democracy from USSR satellite states in 1989 and both went on to enter the European Union? This paper argues that though the implementation of communism in political institutions at the time of transition cannot serve as an explanatory factor, Romania’s patrimonial pre-communist history developed a foundation of corruption and the lack of turnover in political leadership during the transition from communism to democracy played a critical role in continuing this corrupt pre-communist foundation. Conversely, Hungary …