BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — The pair of budding corruption fighters paused outside Slovakia’s presidential palace, trying to decide how long to give the government to capitulate to their demands. They wanted the resignations of the interior minister and the national police chief, as well as full and transparent investigations of a parade of recent corruption scandals. And that was just a start — the demonstration they had organized on Facebook was only a few hours away.

“What do you think, seven days?” asked David Straka, considering the memorandum he had put together with his partner, Karolina Farska.



She wasn’t sure. “We forgot to put in a deadline,” she said sheepishly, her face framed by a flowery headband. “This is the first time we’ve done anything like this.”

The oversight could be forgiven. They were, after all, just 18.

Corruption has been a stubborn problem in many of the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe. Things have grown so bad that some analysts now speak in terms of “state capture” — where all major state institutions are effectively in the hands of corrupt politicians and untouchable oligarchs. The problem is entering an even more critical stage, as authoritarian-minded leaders leverage the rise of nationalism and populism to consolidate power.