Emília Sičáková-Beblavá

The Changing Faces of Europeanisation: How Did the European Union Influence Corruption in Slovakia Before and After Accession?

The paper looks at the European Unions impact on corruption in Slovakia, both before and after the countrys accession to the European Union. It shows that even though pre-accession channels of influence diminish or disappear, membership brings new means of influence. Our methodology looks beyond institutional changes and explicit anti-corruption mechanisms. Before 1999, the European Unions influence on corruption was close to zero, and between 1999 and 2004, its influence was strong and positive. Post-accession developments are more ambiguous, but despite an apparent worsening of corruption after 2004, we observe a transformation rather than a loss of European Union influence.

He Who Appoints the Piper: Understanding Reasons and Implications of Agency Management 'Politicisation' in Slovakia

Summary / Abstract Discussion of politico-administrative relations as well as the research on agencies generally treats the “politicisation” of agency management as a single, “black-box” concept, according to which agency managements (and other senior civil servants) are either political or not. Our paper shows that, using a strict, but widely applied definition of what constitutes a political appointment, agency heads in Slovakia are overwhelmingly “political”, but that the implications of politicisation vary, depending on the type of politicisation. In particular, we distinguish personal nominations of the responsible minister and contrast them with party nominations based on coalition agreements. Based on a series of interviews with senior policy-makers on both sides of the politico-administrative divide, we show that the selection mechanism, incentive structure and robustness of actual accountability mechanisms differs more between these two types of politicisations than between the ministerial and formally “non-political” appointment.

Exploring the Determinants of Transparency of Slovak Municipalities

Abstract This paper focuses on the transparency of Slovak municipalities. It identifies the main trends in the transparency of the 100 largest Slovak municipalities between 2010 and 2014. It shows that there are different degrees of transparency in Slovak municipalities, and it applies regressions to explore correlates and identify the main factors behind this state. This research is descriptive and explanatory and adds to literature by examining political, structural factors related to the political supply of the transparency of the municipalities and the convergence effect. The regression analysis identifies the convergence effect, according to which the transparency of municipalities improves inversely to their initial score. It also finds a negative incumbency effect that indicates lower improvement for incumbent mayors than for new ones. The size of a municipality is also one of the factors that determine the transparency level of that municipality. This relationship is positive – greater size of a municipality increases the level of its transparency.