state capture

Bridges to Nowhere: State Capture and Corruption Risks in Fiscal Transfers and Public Procurement at the Local Level in Southeast Europe

Mineva, D., Kostova, T., Fazekas, M., Poltoratskaia, V. (2023). Bridges to Nowhere: State Capture and Corruption Risks in Fiscal Transfers and Public Procurement at the Local Level in Southeast Europe. Center for the Study of  Democracy. Sofia, Bulgaria.

This report analyses the risks entailed by the misuse of fiscal transfers from central to local governments in nine SEE countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia). Such transfers are typically a tool of equalisation …

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Corruption Risks and State Capture in Bulgarian Public Procurement

Fazekas, M.; Poltoratskaia, V.; Tóth, B. (2023). Corruption Risks and State Capture in Bulgarian Public Procurement (English). Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 10444 Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group.

This paper sets out to measure and analyze corruption risks, patterns of favoritism, and state capture in public procurement in Bulgaria. It draws on two main types of data: large-scale administrative data on public procurement and the list of politically exposed persons. The analysis rests on calculating individual corruption risk …

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Agency independence, campaign contributions, and favouritism in US federal government contracting

Fazekas, M., Ferrali, R., Wachs, J. (2022). Agency independence, campaign contributions, and favouritism in US federal government contracting. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, muac026. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muac026

The impacts of money in US politics have long been debated. Building on principal-agent models, we test whether and to what degree companies’ political donations lead to their favoured treatment in federal procurement. We expect the impact of donations on favouritism to vary by the strength of control by political principals over their …

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Second annual summer school: Methodologies for monitoring anticorruption policies, state capture and public procurement integrity

Anti-corruption is not a final destination, but a consistent process of democratic renewal, checks and balances. Democratic backsliding in parts of Europe, fatigue over anti-corruption reforms, and the rising challenge from authoritarian powers, call upon public institutions, CSOs, investigative journalists and the whole society in Europe to take a stance and promote integrity. The use of big data, state-of-art research methodologies, and comprehensive systems of red flags, coupled with well-functioning civil society consultation mechanisms could greatly support good governance in …

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Second specialised regional training for R2G4P members: Innovative tools and methodologies for tracking illicit financial flows, state capture and corruption

In order to increase the capacity of its civil society and government partners to monitor, diagnose and tackle corruption risks, the R2G4P initiative is holding its second internal three-day regional training on 18-20 May 2022 in Budapest hosted by the GTI at CEU.

While the first training was structured around the initiative’s key methodologies, the current one explores new topics and areas, such as:

  • The conceptual framework of illicit finance and offshore wealth;
  • The role of the Financial Intelligence Units
…

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From Corruption to State Capture. A New Analytical Framework with Empirical Applications from Hungary

Fazekas, M. – Tóth, I. J. (2016): From Corruption to State Capture. A New Analytical Framework with Empirical Applications from Hungary. Political Research Quarterly, published online before print on March 24, 2016 

http://prq.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/03/18/1065912916639137.abstract

State capture and corruption are widespread phenomena across the globe, but their empirical study still lacks sufficient analytical tools. This paper develops a new conceptual and analytical framework for gauging state capture based on microlevel contractual networks in public procurement. To this end, it establishes a novel …

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From corruption to state capture: A new analytical framework with empirical applications from Hungary

Fazekas, M., Tóth, I. J. (2014). From corruption to state capture: A new analytical framework with empirical applications from Hungary. GTI-WP/2014:01, Budapest: Government Transparency Institute.

State capture and corruption are widespread phenomena across the globe, but their empirical study is still highly challenging. This paper develops a new conceptual and analytical framework for gauging state capture based on micro-level contractual networks in public procurement. To this end, it first establishes a robust measure of corruption risks in public procurement transactions …

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