ACTIVELY LISTENING TO REISS
Keywords:
Keywords: Reiss, Serbia, corruption, state/public functions, corruption proofing of legislation, anti-corruption educationAbstract
ACTIVELY LISTENING TO REISS
Jovan Božović
The Agency for Prevention of Corruption
Purpose
To use the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the book to reconsider the warnings to Serbs regarding corruption and offer new ideas for improving the prevention of corruption.
Design/Methods/Approach
Normative-legal, sociological and data analysis methods.
Findings
Hearing and listening are not the same. While most people can hear, far fewer actively listen. Serbs are no different from any other people in this respect, as we will verify through the case of Reiss's appeal to the Serbs.
Archibald Reiss completed the manuscript of his book "Listen Serbs!" in French on June 1, 1928. Considering the context, we will try to answer the questions of whether Reiss kept something and someone silent, or if the skillful hand of an experienced criminalist left us clues to prevent high corruption in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and what the alternative history of the Kingdom and the Serbs would have been if his book had been published in 1928.
Given that Reiss's book was printed in Serbian for the first time in 2004 and distributed free of charge, we will try to summarize what Serbia, listening to Reiss, has done in the field of preventing corruption in the past twenty years. During this period, Serbia ratified the UNCAC in 2005 and then built a normative and institutional framework for preventing corruption by passing key laws and establishing independent bodies and the Anti-Corruption Agency, which since 2010 has played a central role in the prevention of corruption in Serbia.
As we await the year 2028 and the centenary of the completion of Reiss's book, we will offer ideas on how, in that period, actively listening to Reiss, we can improve the prevention of corruption. This will be based on the assessment of the risk of corruption in regulations, efficient prevention of conflicts of interest, effective control of the assets of public officials, and anti-corruption education for young people.
Keywords: Reiss, Serbia, corruption, state/public functions, corruption proofing of legislation, anti-corruption education
About the author
Acting assistant director - Sector for Legal Affairs and Lobbying.
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