FILSAFAT KORUPSI - Direktori File UPI

Communist countries (Inglehart and Baker, 2000: 34-35; Mishler and Rose, 1997:428-429).
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The Barometer surveys also asked whether people expected to be treated fairly by specific
types of public and private officials. It is instructive to compare the results for Czech Republic with
those for Ukraine and Russia. Table 2 shows the striking differences across countries although the
results are difficult to interpret because it is not obvious that ―fair treatment‖ has the same meaning
in different countries. Notice that Russians view banks as much worse than the police and have
about the same view of local groceries as they do of the police. The police are a particular problem
for Ukrainians. A large majority of Czechs expect to be treated fairly by all the institutions in the
survey. One would like to be able to compare expectations of fairness with ―trust‖ in these
institutions as indicated in table 1, but unfortunately, the survey does not permit this except for the
police. Other research, however, suggests that those with expectations of fair treatment have a
relatively high degree of trust in government.
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Focusing on the police, the Czechs, who mostly
expect fair treatment by the police, are much more trusting of them than Russians and Ukrainians.
Notice, however, that in all countries there are people who do not trust the police but still think they
will probably be treated fairly by them. At a minimum, the proportion in that category is 30% in the
Czech Republic, 13% in Ukraine, and 27% in Russia. One wonders what this combination of replies
indicates. Are these people who distrust the police but use a combination of corruption, connections
and persuasion to get what they need? It would be worthwhile to try to understand in concrete
terms what it means when people claim to distrust an institution that they expect to treat them
fairly.
Table 2 here
B. Coping Strategies
Part of the transition to democracy ought to be a change in the way citizens react to poor
treatment by public officials. People should begin to see government as having obligations to
citizens and should become more willing to complain if treated poorly. In the 1998 Barometer
survey, four-fifths of Czechs and three-quarters of Russians and Ukrainians do not wait passively.
Their responses vary. Czechs are inclined to turn to the market or push bureaucrats hard. Russians
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When Austria was compared with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia in 1998, the most
striking differences were the much higher levels of trust in the courts and the police in Austria and
Austrians greater
distrust of the media (Rose and Haerpfer 1998a: 92-93).
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Miller, Grødeland, and Koshechkina (2001:90).
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and Ukrainians are more likely to pay a bribe or use connections (Table 3)(Rose and Haerpfer,
1998a: 96). The focus groups conducted by Miller, Grødeland, and Koshechkina (2001:93-132)
provide a similar picture although they do not include the option of market purchase. Some citizens
in all three countries are willing to use legal methods to obtain what they need from the public
sector.
Table 3 here
Ordinary people view corruption as a continuing problem. In Russia 74 percent think
corruption among national government officials is worse now than under communism. In Ukraine
the number is 87% and in Central and Eastern Europe 71% held this view. In Poland and Slovenia
52% and 58% thought that corruption had increased. Notice that these are also the two countries
where GDP in 1997 had surpassed 1990 levels (Rose and Haerpfer 1998a: 32-33, Rose and Shin,
1998:11-13). In general, there is a rough negative correlation across countries between the
proportion of those surveyed who think that corruption has increased and the share who expect to
be treated fairly by officials.
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