The Politics of Bureaucratic Corruption in Post-Transitional Eastern Europe

Marina Zaloznaya is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Iowa. She received an MA in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a PhD in Sociology from Northwestern University, Illinois. Her research on informal economies, corruption, and political transformations in non-democratic societies has been supported by multiple grants, including grants from the Open Society Institute, the National Science Foundation, and the US Department of Defence. It has also been featured in a number of key sociology and interdisciplinary journals.

• Introduction; 1. Beyond transition: political turnover and bureaucratic corruption in hybrid regimes; 2. The secret life of universities in post-Soviet Ukraine; 3. Fear and transparency in the universities of post-Soviet Belarus; 4. High political turnover and cross-organizational variation in corruption in post-Soviet Ukraine; 5. Low political turnover and cross-sectoral variation in corruption in post-Soviet Belarus; Conclusion.

'This book develops a new and nuanced perspective on the political roots of corruption. It challenges the predominant explanation of post-communist corruption as a side-effect of recent tumultuous transitions to democracy. Transcending the usual sensationalism and moralism of corruption studies, Marina Zaloznaya provocatively demonstrates that transparency, or absence of corruption, may be harmful to citizens of non-democratic societies. The book outlines the basic principles of a sociology of corruption in ways not previously available. Zaloznaya's book is the most comprehensive empirical analysis of the roots of corruption to date, using data sources that are unprecedented in previous corruption studies.' John Hagan, John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and Law, Northwestern University, Illinois, and Co-Director, Center on Law and Globalization, American Bar Foundation