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Evaluating the prevalence and nature of blat in post-Soviet societies

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which the practice of using personal
networks to obtain goods and services or to circumvent formal procedures, known as blat in the Soviet
era, persists in post-Soviet societies and whether its character has altered.
Design/methodology/approach – To do this, the prevalence and nature of blat in the education
sector in the city of Mykolayiv in Ukraine is analysed using 200 face-to-face structured interviews with
a spatially stratified sample of Mykolayiv residents and 30 follow-up semi-structured in-depth interviews.
Findings – The finding is that blat is widely used to gain places in kindergarten, schools and
universities. However, unlike Soviet era blat which took the form of non-monetised friendly help in
the market-oriented society of post-Soviet Ukraine, both possessing control over access to assets such
as education, as well as possessing personal connections to those with control over access to these
assets, is increasingly viewed as a commodity to be bought and sold, and illicit informal monetary
payments are now commonplace. The result is that nepotism, cronyism, bribery and corruption hinder
meritocratic processes.
Research limitations/implications – This paper examines the prevalence and nature of blat in
just one sector in one post-Soviet country. An analysis across a wider range of sectors in various
post-Soviet societies is now required to develop a more context-bound and nuanced understanding of
blat in post-Soviet societies.
Originality/value – This is the first in-depth empirical evaluation of the prevalence and nature of
blat in contemporary post-Soviet societies.

Keywords Education, Corruption, Ukraine, Informal economy, Crime

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Judul Seri

International Journal of Social Economics

No. Panggil

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Penerbit

: Emerald Group., 2014

Deskripsi Fisik

International Journal of Social Economics Vol. 41 No. 9, 2014 pp. 747-759

Bahasa

English

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Tipe Pembawa

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