The ability of civil society to act against corruption

Abstract

Actions against any acts of criminal nature should be complex. Fight against corruption as a multi aspect social phenomenon especially requires a complex approach. Each state that considers corruption as a negative social phenomenon and is willing to eliminate it, uses, maximum possible resources in compliance with political position of a ruling class. First of all, a state makes full use of legal remedies – regulative and protective (punitive). It is reasonable to make the steps in social and economic direction. However, reliance only on public law measures in terms of preventing and fighting corruption cannot be justified. The reason lies in the corruption itself, its expansion and tolerant attitude of the society. This proves the need to uproot corruption determinants not only “from the top” but from “down”, i.e. from the civil society as well. On the one hand, the society serves as a social base for corruption; on the other hand, it is the civil society that is able to control corruption and the work of public authorities in terms of corruption combat. The aim of this paper is to designate civil society as a subject fighting against corruption. The objectives are to detect the means with the help of which civil society could significantly increase efficiency in terms of combating corruption adding to governmental means. The authors of the paper applied traditional methods of criminal science. The paper presents the results of criminological studies carried out by the authors of this paper and by other researches concerning corruption combating.