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Dr. Srđan T. Korać
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Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade
PhD in Public Administration Ethics
2013
Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade
MA in European Studies
2009
Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade
BA in International Relations
2001
Dr Srđan Korać is Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Political Studies. His main areas of research interest include public administration ethics, technopolitics (AI and sociorobotics), and human security. He participates in research project at the University of Regensburg “From Informality to Corruption (1817–2018): Serbia and Croatia in Comparison” (KorrInform), financed by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (https://
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0722-6419
THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS IN INITIATING AN ANTI-CORRUPTION POLICY IN SERBIA
The paper illuminates how civil society organisations in Serbia, in the aftermath of the political changes initiated on 5 October 2000, played the essential role in articulating corruption as a vital public issue, raising awareness of the public, and putting pressure on the then governments to include this issue in the political agenda. Our analysis focuses on two planes of civil society organisations activities: 1) research efforts aimed at properly understanding the phenomenology of corruption as the first step towards sound conceptualisation of various anti-corruption measures, and 2) educational initiatives aimed at transferring knowledge and good practice in anti-corruption methodology and policies from post-industrial societies and other post-communist countries. The timeframe of our analysis embraces the period from 5 October 2000 to December 2005, which we see as the initial phase of engaging civil society organisations in anti-corruption policy in Serbia, before the National Anti-Corruption Strategy was adopted. After the changes in October 2000, civil society organizations in Serbia have acted as a significant factor in raising public awareness of corruption as well as in building anti-corruption institutional and normative infrastructure. From campaigns that targeted all stakeholders (citizens, media, business sector, decision makers) aiming at changing their priorities and interests, to participating in the set-up of public policies in the field of rule of law and monitoring the implementation of anti-corruption laws and strategic commitment, civil society organisations that operated within very wide range of activities, successfully influenced both the institutions and the general public. Despite wide range of activities and modest resources, civil society organisations had an impact on actions of the government, public institutions, and the media. The fight against corruption became one of the central issues in the then Serbia’s political debate. Yet the anti-corruption achievements of Serbian civil society organisations in the period 2000–2005, were limited due to a chronic deficit of political, professional, and moral responsibility of all social actors, resulting in “systemic error” of public policies strategic design aimed at combating corruption – the lack of a participatory political culture. The lack of a participatory political culture in citizen action has limited efficiency in achieving development policy goals, and in implementation and monitoring of public policies relevant to curbing corruption. Belief has been established, that citizens do not ask questions and therefore do not have the power to exercise policy influence nor to shape the environment in which they live. As the concept of political community is a special construct based on democracy and human rights, non-inclusiveness as previously outlined here destructively affected society by making deeper asymmetries of all kinds due to disintegrating influence that prevents the final community constitution through democratic institutions.
REFLEXIVITY IN THE STUDY OF WARFARE: IS THERE ADDED VALUE FOR THE DISCIPLINE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS?
The article examines whether reflectivist approach to epistemology in the study of warfare can amend some weaknesses of the rationalist/positivist canon of mainstream International Relations (IR) theories. The author argues for the existence of a new epistemic situation for the IR researcher: an ontological transformation of the military profession in post-industrial societies that has created a sacralised civic duty to fight in war. The research of warfare is becoming more focused on the individual – who is either a reluctant combatant or a civilian victimised by military operations, but protected by international norms. The author hypothesises that the advantages of reflectivist epistemological viewpoint – embracing standpoint epistemology, situated knowledge, the concept of embodiment, Cynthia Enloe’s claim that “the international is the personal” – may provide a plausible alternative path in the quest for an answer to the question of how we learn about warfare as the central problem of international relations. The analysis shows how reflectivism encourages researchers to identify new, previously “hidden” or marginalised questions and thus expand the scope of inquiry of mainstream IR. The author concludes that, when it comes to the study of warfare in the early twenty-first century, the largest contribution of reflectivist approach to epistemology of IR is in overcoming the shortcomings of the traditionally rigid mainstream epistemological framework of the discipline, providing the grounds for future counter-hegemonic actions.
Military Interventions As Omitted Variable Of Inversed Democratic Peace: An Empirical Evidence
The paper examines the relationship between military interventions and democratisation processes which took place in targeted states. While many researchers try to identify relationship between the regime type and countries’ war proneness, the authors of this paper put these two variables in a reversed order. To test this so-called “inversed democratic peace” thesis based on an argument that an ongoing war is likely to lead to democratisation, we focus our analysis on the US interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and FR Yugoslavia (Kosovo). We deploy three variables: 1) Foreign policy similarity, to determine whether the intervening actor (USA) had similar or different foreign policy goals at the beginning of interventions; 2) Political regime similarity, to indicate whether there were any deviations in the quality of political regime between the intervening state and the target country, as indicated by the democratic peace postulates; 3) military interventions (independent variable). Foreign policy score includes S score dataset developed by Curtis S. Signorino and Jeffrey M. Ritter (1999), while for the political regime quality, the authors deploy Polity IV data. Statistical analysis including Pearsonʼs correlation, logistic regression and descriptive statistics, will be presented for specific dyad level in three specifically designated models. The authors conclude that it is more likely that military interventions affect further democratisation of the targeted post-conflict societies, if observed in a short term rather than in longitudinal domain, while the foreign policy similarity (with the United States) positively correlates in cases with more successful democratisation process.
Parliamentary control of public administration integrity: Post-industrial polyarchies and Serbia
The paper examines the extent to which parliaments are capable of an effective monitoring the ethical dimension of public administration performance, and to encourage indirectly strict compliance with ethical standards. The author analyses the competences, powers and practices of parliaments with the aim to examine to what extent the legislative branch is an effective external control mechanism of the public servants’ performance when it comes to the issue of ethics management. In addition, the author identifies the structural weaknesses of the parliamentary scrutiny mechanisms. The scope of the analysis is limited to a selected sample of post-industrial polyarchies with the parliamentary system of government, and Serbia as a sample of post-communist country in the process of setting up the ethical standards and practices in its public sector in the last decade. The research findings show that, in the period 2001–2015, the National Assembly has not used to the full extent its scrutiny powers to examine responsibility of cabinet ministers and public managers regarding the issue of improving the quality of ethics management in public administration. The author concludes that the effectiveness of scrutiny powers of the Serbian parliament has been oftentimes hampered by the political will to maintain fragile coalition governments at all costs, which means that the parliamentary majorities have had no real interest in a consistent oversight of (un)ethical performance of the executive.