assessment index, which I call the Anti-Corruption Assessment Index (ACAI). First, I
shall discuss the need for ACS by making a literature review of the fight against
corruption. Then, I shall describe ACAI and its methodology. More specifically, I
discuss the need for quantitative anti-corruption strategy assessments and the ACAI,
including its components, research stages, mathematical formula, and scale, as well as
weaknesses and further suggested lines of refinement of ACAI. The next section is
dedicated to the presentation of findings and trends for overall and each ACAI sub-area.
Overall context of adoption of Anti-Corruption Strategies
After the fall of communism, not only were the CEE countries’ socioeconomic
situations very different but also the pathway of reforms they choose to undertake. At the
time, a major debate took place regarding both the speed of reforms (big bang vs.
gradual) and policies’ depth and breath. Svejnar (2001) argues that these reforms can be
separated into 2 different waves the so-called Type I, which focused on macro
stabilization, price liberation and dismantling of communist system institutions,
meanwhile: Type II reforms involved the development and enforcement of laws,
regulations and institutions that ensure a successful market-oriented economy. Svejnar
continues that countries’ ability to implement these reforms was undermined by their
inability to minimize corruption and rent-seeking behavior and for this reasons the anti-
corruption campaigns were initiated.
The major problem a country is facing is the vicious circle of corruption or
corrupt hands that have to clean themselves or take out the skeletons that tumble out of
2
Convention