40 research outputs found
Oversee and Punish: Understanding the Fight Against Corruption Involving Government Workers in Brazil
No full textThis exploratory study leverages a major dataset of official penalties against Brazilian bureaucrats enforced between January 2003 and November 2014, when 5,005 expulsive sanctions were enforced, 68.5% of which concerned acts of corruption. The analysis and discussion also integrate qualitative data gathered through 24 semi-structured interviews with civil servants who were integrity enforcers. Despite the rapid increase in the number of penalties enforced over the years, the creation of a robust set of disciplinary norms and an anti-corruption agency have not secured a fully operational horizontal accountability system within the executive. A great variance of corruption control was observed across agencies, manifested through disproportionate enforcement, not only of overall sanctions but also of corruption and non-corruption-related penalties. In light of the self‐protective behaviour of civil servants, who openly say they do not feel comfortable in the role of corruption fighters, the article advances an argument on ‘convenient accountability’—a kind of institutional abdication combined with a reluctance for peer monitoring, with outcomes that can be described as satisficing for integrity agents. This institutional aspect poses a risk to internal disciplinary systems and increases dependence upon external actors of accountability, compromising the efficiency of both
Corruption and Anti-Corruption Upside Down: New Perspectives from the Global South. 1 - Introduction
No full textThe introductory chapter presents the main objectives of this edited volume, which are to enrich discussions and broaden conceptual horizons in corruption studies by presenting an in-depth analysis of corruption in the Global South, both from its own perspective and from a critical approach to more Northern-centric views. It also discusses how a multidisciplinary approach to corruption, by focusing on cases from the Global South, can be a source of empirical and theoretical knowledge to advance the decolonization of the good governance agenda more broadly. We understand decolonization in international corruption studies involving two broad tasks. The first is to disentangle the “international” from explicit and implicit Global North-dominated hierarchies and dichotomies that normalize the position of advanced economies as the benchmark for “the rest.” The second task is to illuminate and experiment with concepts, theories, perspectives, and methodologies that come from the Global South, including a systematic emphasis on gender. This introduction also presents the outline of the book, detailing what to expect from each chapter
Corruption and Anti-Corruption Upside Down. 17 - Conclusion.
No full textWhat are the lessons from the Global South on the limitations of corruption studies as a field? How can global responses tocorruption that have historically been driven by advanced economies benefit from the Global South’s experience? This concluding chapter highlights insights and lessons learned from the Global South on how to face common global challenges, including increased tolerance toward corruption, failed reforms, backlashes in anti-corruption mechanisms, and reduced impact of bottom-up action. Based on the reflections and empirical data offered by the contributors to this edited volume, this chapter identifies certain components of a critical approach to corruption studies. There is an urgent need to address the knowledge asymmetry and lack of both reflexivity and cosmopolitanism that currently prevail in the field
The Digitalisation of Anti-Corruption in Brazil: Scandals, Reforms, and Innovation
No full textThis book investigates how digital technologies, such as social media and artificial intelligence, can contribute to combatting corruption in Brazil.
Brazil, with its long history of scandals and abundant empirical data on digital media usage, serves as a perfect case study to trace the development of bottom-up and top-down digital anti-corruption technologies and their main features. This book highlights the connections between anti-corruption reforms and the rapid implementation of innovative solutions, primarily developed by tech-savvy public officials and citizens committed to anti-corruption efforts. The book draws on interviews with experts, activists and civil servants, as well as open-source materials and social media data to identify key actors, their practices, challenges and limitations of anti-corruption technologies. The result is a thorough analysis of the process of digitalisation of anti-corruption in Brazil, with a theoretical framework which can also be applied to other countries. The book introduces the concept of “integrity techies” to encompass social and political actors who develop and facilitate anti-corruption technologies, and discusses different outcomes and issues associated with digital innovation in anti-corruption.
This book will be a key resource for students, researchers and practitioners interested in technologies and development in Brazil and Latin America, as well as corruption and anti-corruption studies more broadly
‘Boom-and-Burst’: Linking online and offline elements of right-wing ‘patriotic’ camps in Brazil
No full textThis article examines social media’s role in the “online-offline nexus,” focusing on how digital interactions translate into sustained, large-scale, right-wing protests. Using Brazil as a case study, the research combines document analysis with non-participant observation in open right-wing Telegram groups and participant observation at the largest of Brazil’s 100 protest camps. At this camp in Brasília, supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro, as in many other cities, gathered for 70 days between 2022 and 2023 to protest the 2022 presidential election won by Lula da Silva. The camps and online groups prominently displayed nationalist symbols and similar slogans such as “Stolen Election”, “SOS Armed Forces” and “Save Brazil,” reflecting the unified ideology of the self-called “patriots.” Social media—mainly through the (re)circulation of videos, posts, and dedicated content produced by and to demonstrators in Telegram and WhatsApp groups—proved essential in four stages: mobilizing, organizing, sustaining, and reorganizing. Introducing the concept of “boom-and-burst,” this study shows how the online-offline nexus both fostered collective identity and facilitated the logistical and ideological underpinnings of prolonged, site-specific demonstrations, actively encouraging violence. In Brazil, the overt support of many state actors, especially the army and police, also played a role. The cycle of intense digital enthusiasm translated into protest camps and, instead of the expected bust, ultimately escalated into acts of violence, with demonstrators planning bombings and vandalizing institutional sites in a disturbing sequel to the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol
From concerned citizens to civic bots: The bottom-up fight against corruption in Brazil from a longitudinal perspective
No full textIs the interplay between digital media development and anti-corruption initiatives always linear and closely interactive? With this guideline question, this chapter assesses eight Brazilian bottom-up anti-corruption initiatives using a retrospective longitudinal analysis to explore how they intertwine with the digital media that have been rapidly developing over the past 20 years. Brazil provides an interesting context because, since the late 1990s, the country has seen the emergence of fertile and digitally heterogeneous anti-corruption and pro-accountability civil society initiatives at the same time as an impressive increase in the number of internet users. What emerges from the data is that non-linear patterns of interaction between anti-corruption and digital media are crucial to critically assess the role of technology in curbing corruption. The digital literacy and capabilities of activists suggest that there are cases of coevolution at the same time as cases of coexistence and convergence
Tamanho Importa na Luta Contra Corrupção? Controles Internos no Legislativo e no Executivo na Esfera Federal (Does size matter in fighting corruption? Internal controls in the federal Legislative and Executive branches in Brazil)
No full textThis chapter aims to provide empirical evidence of the intuitive agreement that ‘small fish’ are more likely to be punished by acts of corruption, using Brazil as a case study. Based on the assumption that anti-corruption strategies might be more efficient when they focus on highly visible examples, mainly involving both powerful bribe-takers and bribe-payers, it will compare the results of disciplinary procedures and administrative sanctions against federal civil servants and ministers of the cabinet in the federal executive branch and members of the National Congress in Brazil. As this study shows, in stark contrast to the treatment of ‘big fish’, the number of punishments of bureaucrats is indeed fast expanding in the administrative sphere in the country. There is a visible effort to improve administrative checks and balance mechanisms in Brazil, mainly in the federal executive branch. However, it does not mean greater accountability or less corruption in the short term. This chapter argues that there is a high level of tolerance of corruption and a culture of self-interest and self-preservation, especially among politician
Pizzolato: Não Existe Plano Infalível
No full textThe escape and arrest of Henrique Pizzolato, convicted by the Brazilian Supreme Court for corruption and money laundering
Suit up to go to jail: how the multi-institutional approach against corruption works in BraziL
No full textIn what is a rare case of effective cooperation between the Federal Police, the Federal prosecution service and the judiciary, Brazil has witnessed an impressive bribery and kickback investigation dubbed "Car Wash" (Lava Jato in Portuguese). The scandal has made newspaper headlines every single day since March 2014, when the police made the first arrests. The investigation has already identified 10 billion reais ($3.7 billion) of suspicious payments, over 40 people have been indicted, and around 40 politicians are about to be investigated by the Supreme Court, making the petróleo (the "big oily") Brazil's biggest corruption scandal until now
Unfairness in AI Anti-Corruption Tools: Main Drivers and Consequences
No full textThis article discusses the potential sources and consequences of unfairness in artificial intelligence (AI) predictive tools used for anti-corruption efforts. Using the examples of three AI-based anti-corruption tools from Brazil—risk estimation of corrupt behaviour in public procurement, among public officials, and of female straw candidates in electoral contests—it illustrates how unfairness can emerge at the infrastructural, individual, and institutional levels. The article draws on interviews with law enforcement officials directly involved in the development of anti-corruption tools, as well as academic and grey literature, including official reports and dissertations on the tools used as examples. Potential sources of unfairness include problematic data, statistical learning issues, the personal values and beliefs of developers and users, and the governance and practices within the organisations in which these tools are created and deployed. The findings suggest that the tools analysed were trained using inputs from past anti-corruption procedures and practices and based on common sense assumptions about corruption, which are not necessarily free from unfair disproportionality and discrimination. In designing the ACTs, the developers did not reflect on the risks of unfairness, nor did they prioritise the use of specific technological solutions to identify and mitigate this type of problem. Although the tools analysed do not make automated decisions and only support human action, their algorithms are not open to external scrutiny
