ALACS · Promotion of Participation and Citizenship in Europe through the “Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres (ALACs)” of Transparency International

The ALAC-project will generate better scientific knowledge and a “best practice”-model of civil society activities in the anti-corruption coalition. With the focus on the “Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres (ALACs)” of Transparency International, the leading CSO against corruption, the research project aims at a) enhancing civil society participation, b) raising anti-corruption effectiveness and c) developing the advocacy for legal change at the national and EU level. Based on the insight that citizens’ participation and the values of integrity, accountability and transparency are crucial components of fighting corruption the project is designed to promote the ALACs both as a management tool of a ‘bottom-up’ anti-corruption work and citizens’ participation mechanism. The goal of developing an advanced ALAC-methodology as a new model for co-operation between citizens, CSOs and researchers is to meet the challenge of devising policies that raise the level of citizens’ participation and empowerment. Combining action-research and practical implementation the project – itself designed as a process of organisational learning – will have direct impact on the work of Transparency International and its partner organisations in Europe and all over the world. Furthermore the “empirical grounded theory of the practice of the anti-corruption coalition” in different EU- and EU-affiliated countries, intended by the project, will establish an innovative paradigm for scientific research as well as for the design of all kinds of civil society actors and non-governmental organisations.