State Reform and Informal Practices in East Central Europe (Research Brief)

The post-communist state, and the ways in which political agents have used informal means to sustain or undermine its formal reform, remains largely unexplored. As the functioning and control of state structures increasingly became a major concern for both policymakers and scholars, the focus has been mostly on the formal reforms of the state, which addressed the civil service, regional government and decentralization, and central state administration. Yet equally important are the informal practices that can undermine or sustain these formal structures and transformations.

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Anna Grzymala-Busse, of Yale University, was a 2003-04 Short-Term Travel Grants fellow.