State Capture Assessment Diagnostics (SCAD)
“The key characteristic of state capture is the public traces it leaves behind. Because it needs to affect public policy so as to bend it to its will, it is bound to leave public traces which can be discovered by suitable pattern-finding methods”. (CSD)
SCAD is a project of theCenter for the Study of Democracy(CSD), founded in 1989, which is a public policy institute fostering reform in Europe through public policy and impact vis-a-vis civil society. “SCAD is designed to measure state capture results/effects and the capture process itself, as the latter is most often hidden, secret, and inaccessible. It is a pioneering effort for the exposure of state capture through measurement. It is meant to aid European policy makers in tackling state capture issues in their drive to provide an instrument to safeguard rule of law principles and protect the Union’s financial interest, and to better inform enlargement progress-monitoring and decision-making.”
SCAD isuseful to policymakerin two ways:
- “Verify the existence of state capture practices in given economic sectors and regulatory/enforcement institutions;
- Consider policy adjustments which close the opportunities for special interests to use the institutions of public governance for private ends.”
“[It] is designed to measure state capture results/effects and the capture process itself, as the latter is most often hidden, secret, and inaccessible. The SCAD model includestwo major components:
- Business state capture pressure (BSCP), which is centered at the Monopolization pressure (MP) at national, sectoral or institutional level; and
- State capture enablers (SCE), which encompasses institutional and environmental factors at national level.”
“The SCAD policy design model and its components would allow EU authorities to build evolving, risk-sensitive instruments to assess and tackle corruption and state capture risks in regulatory heavy areas and industries. Regular monitoring of state capture indicators and policy implementation milestones provides an effective feedback mechanism for policy makers. Public access to monitoring data would guarantee both civic ownership over the anti-state capture policies and political commitment to the continuation of the process, even if it confronts powerful private interests.”