Lithuanian Annual Strategic Review

The purpose of this article is to discuss and analyze the efforts being made to reduce corruption in Lithuania in the framework of a social constructionism tradition. Under examination are the European Union’s anti-corruption interests, the emergence of corruption in Lithuania, corruption objectivisation elements and anti-corruption practices in Lithuania. It is claimed that Lithuania’s efforts to reduce corruption can be likened to an anti-corruption industry. The article’s findings state that expressions of this anti-corruption industry serve to increase the visibility of corruption in Lithuanian society; international corruption research in Lithuania is afforded undeserved prominence, and the “reality” it purports to describe as well as the resulting anti-corruption initiatives are created ignoring national particularities; assessment of the effectiveness of anti-corruption initiatives requires more time; the negative information concerning efforts to reduce corruption strongly overwhelms the positive information released. All these listed factors determine that any progress in the field of corruption reduction in Lithuania often goes by unnoticed.