Open AccessSerbian anti-corruption policy: Welcome to Potemkin’s village?
Author(s) -
Duyne Petrus C. van
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
filozofija i društvo
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.116
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2334-8577
pISSN - 0353-5738
DOI - 10.2298/fid1301081v
Subject(s) - language change , wonder , law enforcement , government (linguistics) , law , population , enforcement , metaphor , political science , constitution , corrupt practices , sociology , psychology , politics , social psychology , art , linguistics , philosophy , demography , literature
Law enforcement in Serbia concerning the offence of corruption is similar to a camera obscura: opacity prevails. This does not instil much trust in the population: surveys carried out by or on behalf of the UN reveal that only politicians and doctors are more distrusted than judges and prosecutors. Corruption is a very underreported offence, as victims have the feeling that the authorities do not care about corruption: why report?\udAn extensive statistical analysis of corruption cases handled by the prosecution and the court showed that the camera obscura metaphor had to be refined: apart from being opaque, the law enforcement institutions behave like a random box. Neither in the prosecution service nor in the courts could a policy be discerned. The outcome of the judicial system in terms of prosecution and sentencing appeared to be statistically at random.\udA qualitative analysis of the most serious corruption cases demonstrated to what extent these cases occurred in all layers of society. In such cases the government was non-responsive to complaints of its own institutions. Also in other matters the authorities demonstrated a lot of foot dragging. Despite the anti-corruption strategies one may wonder whether the government really cares