Promotion of participation and citizenship in europe. Engaging citizens in the fight against corruption through the advocacy and legal advice centres of transparency international

The paper aims at presenting results from the EU-funded project entitled “Promotion of Participation and Citizenship in Europe through the Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres (ALACs) of Transparency International” supported by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme. The research project is a joined venture between the Transparency International Secretariat and a team of scholars based at the universities of Konstanz, Duisburg-Essen and Warwick. The fight against corruption within member and candidate states of the European Union (EU) as well as in a range of countries around the world to date has made obvious that there is a gap between centrally designed anti-corruption measures and public perceptions of corruption. Against this background informing the public, i.e. raising public awareness about the problem has increasingly become over the recent years one of the most important aspects in the international anti-corruption field. In order to enhance public participation in the fight against corruption and thus to enhance the rule of law and democracy, the internationally leading coalition against corruption, Transparency International (TI), has launched since eight years an anti-corruption tool entitled Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC). ALACs have become over the last years an important instrument within the frame of the so-called International Anticorruption Regimes. ALACs enable direct engagement of citizens in the fight against corruption. They empower both victims and witnesses of corruption and provide channels for their grievances. The paper provides first of all insights into history, structure and function of ALACs as an important anti-corruption and citizens participation tool in more than 40 countries worldwide. By doing so, the paper comparatively focuses on how ALACs translate concerns of ordinary citizens on corruption cases into actions for systemic (legal, administrative and institutional) anti-corruption improvements through case and public advocacy.