“We have a bent for pessimism or optimism, but we are least bent on being persistent. Well, corruption can most successfully be overcome with persistence – as citizens and as government representatives we need to be peristent.”
Verica Barać“Of course there is corruption in Serbia. Is there a state with a government this bad, is there a state in which certain things have not yet been brought to light, so that we can say that there is no corruption present? Corruption is everywhere. Corruption mostly means that a state and its government are soiled. Therefore can we say that there is no contamination in the government? We cannot.”
Stjepan Gredelj
The aim of the conference “Corruption and Social Development” is to explore the multidimensional phenomenon of corruption starting from its various definitions: administrative, public interest, economic, philosophical, as well as its understanding in the original Aristotelian meaning of generation and corruption. “We are to distinguish the causes,” writes Aristotle in the first passage of his book on Generation and Corruption, “and to state the definitions, of these processes considered in general – as changes predicable uniformly of all the things that come-to-be and pass-away by nature.” When instead of using ‘come-to-be’ and ‘pass-away’ we use the Greek or Latin terms (generation and corruption), the words expand to cover a much larger semantic field than the Aristotelian cosmogony. How does the meaning of coming to be and decay transfer from physics into biology, or from philosophy to medicine? To what extent does a biopolitical interpretation of generation and corruption follow the processes that occur in a society, in a state? How does corruption destroy institutions, and is it possible to strive towards uninterrupted social progress? Do not sensationalist platitudes about rooting out corruption in fact hide an inefficiency of political program and a stagnated ideology? How are its gangrenous manifestations in the justice system cleansed? Could a radical theoretical or institutional procedure establish control over the cancerous effects of corruption? These questions, along with many others, will be at the core of this international interdisciplinary gathering on corruption.
The conference is dedicated to the memory of Verica Barać and Stjepan Gredelj, prominent and tenacious fighters against corruption in Serbia.
The official language of the conference is English.
The organizational committee:
Ana Birešev, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University Of Belgrade
Petar Bojanić, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University Of Belgrade
Rada Drezgić, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade
Srđan Prodanović, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University Of Belgrade
Organized by:
Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory in Belgrade, University of Belgrade
Center for Ethics, Law and Applied Philosophy, Belgrade
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Friday, October 19
12:30 Gathering of the participants at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory
Kraljice Natalije, 45, Belgrade (Conference room, 1st Floor)
13:00-15:00 Lunch (Restaurant Monument, Admirala Geprata 14)
Panel I:
Chair: Rada Drezgić (Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory)
15:00-16:00 Opening Addresses:
15:00-15:15 Petar Bojanić [director of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade]
Rada Drezgić [Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of
Belgrade]
15:15-16:00 Danilo Šuković (Institute of Social Sciences, Center for Economic Research) – in Serbian
16:00-17:00 Petrus C. van Duyne (Tilburg University)
Anti corruption policy in Serbia – Welcome to Potemkin Village
17:00-17:15 Coffee Break
Panel II:
Chair: Srđan Prodanović (Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade)
17:15-18:15 Marija Zurnić (University of Nottingham)
Corruption Scandals in Serbia: Trigger for Institutional Formation and
Change?
18:15-19:15 Petre Damo (Association for the Development of the Romanian Social Forum)
Social and legislative stand against corruption
20:00 Dinner (Restaurant Gaston, Uzun Mirkova 5)
Saturday, October 20
Panel III:
Chair: Igor Cvejić (Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade)
9:45-10:45 Miran Božovič (Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana)
Le surplus de lumières
10:45-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:00 Gregor Kroupa (Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana)
History Gone Wrong. Rousseau on Corruption
12:00-13:00 Sanja Milutinović Bojanić (Center for Ethics, Law and Applied Philosophy, Belgrade)
Corruption and Sex
13:00-15:00 Lunch (Restaurant Monument, Admirala Geprata 14)
Panel IV:
Chair: Gazela Pudar (Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade)
15:00-16:00 Silvia Augeneder (Law Faculty, University of Salzburg)
A legal and ethical approach to corruption – Whistle blowing as a tool for shifting responsibility?
16:00-17:00 Aleksandar Fatić (Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrade)
“External” and “Internal” Strategies to Control Corruption: The Role of Ethics in Fostering the Integrity of the Public Administration
17:00-17:15 Coffee Break
Chair: Petrus C. van Duyne (Tilburg University)
17:15-18:15 Zlatko Nikolić (Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research, Belgrade)
Corruption in Serbia – Social and Psychological Aspects
18:15-19:15 Narcis Tulbure (University of Pittsburg)
States of Perpetual Experimentation: Neoliberal Transformations in Postsocialist Romania
20:00 Dinner (Restaurant Monument, Cika Ljubina 9)
Sunday, October 21
Panel V:
9:45-10:00 Kori Udovički [Center for Advanced Economic Studies (CEVES), Belgrade]
Introductory remarks
10:00-10:45 Vito Tanzi (Former IMF Fiscal Affairs Director)
Corruption and the Public Administration
10:45-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-11:45 Ljubomir Madžar (Economics Faculty, Belgrade University)
(Presentation title to be announced)
11:45-12:30 Goran Radosavljević (former state secretary of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia)
Balancing Corruption-proofing and Flexibility: The Case of Serbia’s Public Procurement Law
12:30-13:30 Discussion
14:00 Lunch (Restaurant Monument, Admirala Geprata 14)