Two hundred years of corruption in the new book
10. 6. 2016 | 2404 visits
Publication with simple name - Corruption - is starting in the 18th century in Hungary and ends with year 2012 in Slovakia. It was written by a team of authors from the Institute of History of SAS under the guidance of doc. Peter Šoltés, PhD. and Mgr. László Vörös, PhD. Co-author László Vörös said that the mechanisms of corruption didn´t fundamentally change for nearly two centuries and people should know how much power and corruption related are.
According to the publication, corruption became part of the high politics in Central Europe in the 19th century. It was caused by the political transformation when organized modern political parties were formed. The politics was becoming much more expensive, but the debate about legal means of financing political activity came with considerable delay.
„The connectivity of business elite and highest peaks of power was based on the fact that many people in the general population gained the right to vote and you had to convince them to vote for you. Election campaigns were very rough and it cost huge amount of money,“ explains László Vörös. Political parties were gaining money for the election campaigns from business and bankers circles in exchange for government contracts or monopolies granting to the major private companies. Various models of corruption then continued during the first Czechoslovak Republic and the Slovak state till the presence.
„When we look at corruption, we do not just write that politicians were corrupted, but we also explain how the corruption phenomena works, the extent of the corruption in the system and if there have been attempts to suppressed it by the politicians," said Vörös. The publication, which has already won the Prize for scientific and expert literature by Literary Fund, should be in the bookstores within the coming weeks.
Scientists from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences continue with the research of the issue of corruption and extend its context. Nowadays they are working on the project aimed at continuity and discontinuity of social elites in Slovakia during the 19th and 20th century. This research will be followed by other projects with topics of political corruption, politicization of the lower classes of the population and nationalist propaganda, which will start next year in January. „The theme of the elites, corruption and nationalism creates a circle, so we decided to connect these research topics," said László Vörös from the Institute of History of SAS.
Zuzana Vitková
According to the publication, corruption became part of the high politics in Central Europe in the 19th century. It was caused by the political transformation when organized modern political parties were formed. The politics was becoming much more expensive, but the debate about legal means of financing political activity came with considerable delay.
„The connectivity of business elite and highest peaks of power was based on the fact that many people in the general population gained the right to vote and you had to convince them to vote for you. Election campaigns were very rough and it cost huge amount of money,“ explains László Vörös. Political parties were gaining money for the election campaigns from business and bankers circles in exchange for government contracts or monopolies granting to the major private companies. Various models of corruption then continued during the first Czechoslovak Republic and the Slovak state till the presence.
„When we look at corruption, we do not just write that politicians were corrupted, but we also explain how the corruption phenomena works, the extent of the corruption in the system and if there have been attempts to suppressed it by the politicians," said Vörös. The publication, which has already won the Prize for scientific and expert literature by Literary Fund, should be in the bookstores within the coming weeks.
Scientists from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences continue with the research of the issue of corruption and extend its context. Nowadays they are working on the project aimed at continuity and discontinuity of social elites in Slovakia during the 19th and 20th century. This research will be followed by other projects with topics of political corruption, politicization of the lower classes of the population and nationalist propaganda, which will start next year in January. „The theme of the elites, corruption and nationalism creates a circle, so we decided to connect these research topics," said László Vörös from the Institute of History of SAS.
Zuzana Vitková