Corruption trends in the V4 countries

Abstract

Corruption was, is and probably will be in future one of the forms of economic behaviour that bring about serious economic consequences. It is a characteristic feature of corruption that it occurs in all countries regardless their political and societal arrangements. Being aware of adverse consequences of corruptive behaviour every state attempts in the course of time to reduce corruption to the lowest level possible. The objective of the presented article is analysis of the past and current status of corruption in the Visegrád countries, including an estimate of a future trend of corruption in these countries. The corruptive environment will be analysed retrospectively looking back at the change of the social order in these countries and in the context of the theory of new institutional economics.