The Risk of Systemic Corruption in Slovenia: Drivers and Barriers

Abstract

This article tackles a salient area of the recent examinations of corruption, that of systemic corruption. While the academic community has extensively studied the existence and extent of corruption in Slovenia, the different research designs that scholars have employed have often yielded conflicting results. These inconsistencies constitute the starting point of the article, where we also attempt to grasp the character of corruption in Slovenia. As a multi-method examination confirmed the risk of systemic corruption in Slovenia, we devote an extensive portion of our study to analysing the institutional and normative drivers and barriers to it. Our study indicates that the spoils system in public administration, amalgamated with systemically built-in (neo)corporatist network patterns among the (governing) politicians and (state) economy, is one of the key drivers of systemic corruption in the state. On the other hand, the barrier to systemic corruption rests in the levers and opportunities of the international environment, as an impressive number of (international) documents putting forward the relevance of fighting systemic corruption have already induced change in the (inter) national discourse on the topic.