The Politics of Corruption: Political Will and the Rule of Law in Post-Communist Romania

Abstract

Once a rarely discussed issue, corruption has become one of the most debated problems in the past 15 years, particularly in the context of democratization. For post-communist countries, corruption has represented a particular challenge, undermining their process of democratic consolidation. Even in the absence of a tradition of the rule of law and of democracy, there is promise in the fight against corruption when there is political will to combat it. The case of Romania demonstrates that European Union (EU) pressure, electoral pressure and the political will of the domestic political leadership combined to secure the establishment of the rule of law and combating corruption in the Romanian judiciary between 1997 and 2006.