CORRUPTION

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New Methods to Engage Civil Society in Macedonia and Change Attitudes Towards Corruption New Methods to Engage Civil Society in Macedonia and Change Attitudes Towards Corruption Dr. Dale Mineshima-Lowe 1 Center for International Relations; Birkbeck, University of London In contemporary discussions about corruption, the promotion of citizen participation, increasing transparency, and examining strength of and trust in institutions have long been acknowledged as cornerstones for embedding and consolidating democracy. Corruption is commonly seen as a problem of both developing and developed countries, hence the move by many governments to take a more proactive role in the development of strategies to stamp out corruption where it exists. In particular, rising democracies have found it particularly challenging to balance economic and political developments. Where a country is poor and suffers from weak institutions, corruption has gained a foothold, infiltrating these fledgling democracies, becoming more difficult to ferret-out, and get rid of it at later stages of democratic consolidation. International Affairs Forum As the numerous Transparency International (TI) global corruption barometers have listed, levels of corruption have been particularly highlighted in transitional states and fledgling democracies where consolidation of democratic institutions and practices are weak or incomplete. Not only is the existence of corruption problematic but, in particular, the larger impact this has on issues of transparency and trust in governments and government institutions by citizens. One such instance can be seen as the impetus for the development of a new project in Macedonia. Transparency International’s 2010 global corruption barometer 2 illustrated how Macedonia’s population saw corruption as a major problem, claiming that institutions were corrupt, these results were based on citizen experiences (and not just perceptions). There was a feeling that failure to address and demonstrate significant progress in fighting corruption 3 was linked to apathy amongst the populace, further undermining trust in officials and institutions, and entrenching a feeling that the country lacked any real accountability to protect citizens and their rights. To counter how corruption has been undermining democracy within Macedonia, Transparency International Macedonia undertook the development of a project to allow citizens to report allegations of corruption experienced or observed. The Transparency Watch-Macedonia (TW-M) project 4 has focused on taking steps to address the experiences and perceptions of corruption within the country, through engaging the citizenry as a means of monitoring, identifying, and combating corruption. The project, started in 2011, was the first of its kind within the region and also within the Transparency International movement. An important feature of the project is its use of the Transparency Watch website (www.prijavikorpcija.org) where citizens are able to file an online form, send an email, or call TW-M directly. As technology has progressed, the use of mobile technology and social media 48
International Affairs Forum Fall 2016 platforms have also been integrated as sources from which to report incidents of corruption. An application for Android mobile phones was launched in mid-July 2012, and an iPhone/Apple version application in 2013. 5 The overarching goals for the corruption reporting project have been to engage citizens and to have a positive impact on civil society development. The monitoring/tracking platform being used provides the project with interactive mapping capability that allows for presenting a visualization of the reported incidents (raw count or validated incidents only) and provides users to the website (www.prijavikorupcija.org), with the ability to filter data by date and/or location to see when and where incidents have been reported. [The geo-location of reports are displayed at an aggregated level on the map (down to only a five kilometre area)—so that exact coordinates of the report’s source location cannot be identified on the website’s database map]. Summary Firstly, the project has on one level, demonstrated changes amongst the population of Macedonia towards corruption, suggesting that projects like Prijavikorpcija.org may be having an impact on perceptions of low levels of corruption within the country. In TI’s 2013 barometer results, about half of the population were more positive about levels of corruption decreasing within the country, with 61% agreeing/strongly agreeing that ordinary individuals could make a difference in the fight against Fall 2016 49
Page 1: Fall 2016 Volume 7, Issue 2 CORRUPT
Page 4 and 5: HUMAN TRAFFICKING 73 Interview with
Page 6 and 7: Special Themed Issue: Editors’ In
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Page 16 and 17: Political Will - or Political Won
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Page 20 and 21: Interview with Raymond Baker Intern
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Page 24 and 25: Interview with Jessica Tillipman In
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Page 30 and 31: Interview with Jessica Tillipman Je
Page 32 and 33: Interview with Dr. Julio Bacio Terr
Page 34 and 35: Interview with Professor Louise She
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Page 52 and 53: New Methods to Engage Civil Society
Page 54 and 55: Transparency and Open Contracting T
Page 60 and 61: Treating Health and Pharmaceutical
Page 62 and 63: Treating Health and Pharmaceutical
Page 64 and 65: Interview with Professor Emerita He
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Page 68 and 69: Global Anti-Corruption Conditionali
Page 74 and 75: 73 Interview with Dr. Myria Vassili
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Page 80 and 81: Interview with Matthew Friedman Int
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Page 88 and 89: The Potential Correleation Between
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Human Trafficking Around the World:
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Interview with Dr. Osei Bonsu Dicks
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Interview with Dr. Osei Bonsu Dicks
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State-Sponsored Slavery: Migrant La
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State-Sponsored Slavery: Migrant La
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Child Trafficking in China: Who Are
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Interview with Dr. Robert Lawson Dr
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Interview with Professor Susanne Lu
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Organ Trafficking During Times of W
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Lessons Learned by NGOs in the Figh
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REFERENCES AND FOOTNOTES Corruption
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%e2%80%9chow-to%e2%80%9d/, 25 Novem
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1 By Law No. 228/2003. 2 In particu
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Shen, Anqi (2015). Offending Women
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direct experience of some of the is
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