It drifts disconnectedly, afloat in a wholly unprecedented legal and social context, searching for a new purpose and perhaps a new master. The following symposium is an attempt to examine the current state of the postcommunist procuracy in five countries of the region. The paramount challenge facing legal reformers throughout the region is to decriminalize the economy and curb public-sector corruption. One institution charged with holding public officials accountable and guaranteeing that laws are enforced is the procuracy, an office with no exact parallel in Western legal systems and which certainly has a much broader mandate than the prosecutor in common-law countries. From the postcommunist procuracy's conspicuous failure to fulfill its large on-paper authority to deal with crime and corruption two conclusions can be drawn.
Excessive weakness is just as grave a vice in public institutions as excessive strength.
This is a crucial question, because the flawed reform of the postcommunist procuracy is bound to stall the development and impede the consolidation of the rule of law. But the only way to strengthen a democratic state is to make it more responsive to the needs of society. Stated descriptively, the weakness of the postcommunist state is rooted in a pervasive failure to provide a coherent response to felt social needs. Any postcommunist state that began to deal successfully with the problems of crime and corruption, through a reformed procuracy and other streamlined law-enforcement agencies, would undoubtedly elicit significant public willingness to cooperate. Increased public support, in turn, would presumably improve the government's capacity to cope with these and other collective problems.