Corrupt democracies? Discourse and perceptions in Romania and Austria
Dr. Tina OLTEANU, Department of Political Science, University of Vienna

10 April, 14:30, Sala Schuman

The study of corruption is, as scholars on corruption always point out, an informed guess about the nature, scale, causes and consequences of corruption. This is explicable by the hidden nature of corrupt acts: our understanding of corruption is based on perceptions, experiences and public debate of this phenomenon.

Even though we are dealing with tip of the iceberg, experiences and perceptions of corruption shed a light on the relationship between citizens and their political regime. This public lecture makes an inquiry into corruption from the perspective of democratic theory and compares “old” EU member states with new “post-communist” EU member states in terms of problem awareness and experience with corruption by citizens.

An in-depth analysis of the media discourse and parliamentary discussion in Austria and Romania is given.

The findings are reflected in terms of similarities and differences against the background of democratic theory.

Dr. Tina Olteanu (Department of Political Science, University of Vienna) studied East European Studies at the Free University of Berlin, worked at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (2004-2005) and the University of Vienna (since 2005). In 2011, she was awarded the the best dissertation award by the Austrian Political Science Association. Research areas: democracy research, corruption and transition research, political partcipation.