International Liberty Institute proposes eliminating corruption through radical reduction of the state’s role in economy

The International Liberty Institute (ILI) presented a concept for destroying corruption in Ukraine, which is based on an analysis of state failures in the economy, the functioning of the entrepreneurial growth model, as well as conclusions from studies of economic freedom, the institution of private property and the principles of a small state.

“We want to present a slightly different view of how to destroy corruption in Ukraine. To put it in two words, we propose an approach to destroy the causes of corruption, rather than constantly fighting their consequences,” ILI Director Mykhailo Kamchatnyi said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Wednesday.

According to him, the presented concept should become a reference point for government bodies, the anti-corruption infrastructure and civil society, since the current model is mainly focused on responding to individual corruption episodes, but does not dismantle the conditions under which they arise.

For his part, ILI President Yaroslav Romanchuk emphasized that corruption is primarily a problem of economic policy, institutions and the theory of public administration.

“Our approach differs from the traditional one in that we built it on the foundation of the theory of state failures. Without such an approach, any architecture for fighting corruption turns into a permanent chronic process. Corruption restrains Ukraine’s European integration, investment, protection of property rights, defense capability and the country’s competitiveness. According to Romanchuk, if Ukraine sets itself the goal of economic growth at the level of 6-7% per year for 15-20 years, then without the systemic elimination of corruption sources it will be impossible to achieve this,”