The end of communism in Central and Eastern Europe symbolized a period full of hope for a future different from the recent past. Two decades on, most of the optimism has died out and post-communist countries of Eastern Europe are struggling with more than just the regime’s legacy. Corruption is one of the key issues that the countries of Western Balkans need to overcome in order to part from the past. Much investment has been made in fighting corruption, through a variety of tools: from providing legal structure to empowering citizen groups.
Using Alina Mungiu-Pippidi’s corruption typology, I made a corruption diagnosis by looking at state capture, public procurement, privatization and people’s perception and experience of corruption in Albania, Kosovo and Serbia. The conclusion is that they fall into a competitive particularistic system, characterized by unfair and unpredictable distribution of goods, and high state capture.
The focus of this paper is on civil society activities, which covers the role of the media. I compared the experiences of Albania, Kosovo and Serbia, on three levels: civil society, sector-specific and project-specific. Civil society as a whole is compared using USAID score on NGO sustainability and the Freedom House civil society score. In comparing the sectors, I have used the sector-specific impact assessment model developed by Helmut Anheier. Finally, I compare individual projects to find elements which make successful civil society projects.
