engleski

The Importance of Governance in the EU Enlargement Process

Good governance is essential for a successful EU integration and economic development. This paper compares governance of eight transition countries with the current EU average. It encompasses the following dimensions of governance: rule of law, democracy, corruption, public administration quality, political stability and social capital. According to indicators from various sources, Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia are on average closer to the EU governance quality level than Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania. However, the weakest points of all countries are: rule of law, public administration quality and corruption. Judging by these governance dimensions, distance from the EU is for the majority of observed countries rather long. Inefficient judicial system, corrupt public officials and low administrative capacity form a knot that is difficult to disentangle, especially if the level of social capital is low. This paper also confirms the hypothesis that countries with better governance have better development outcomes.

governance; proširenje EU

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