As faces do ativismo anticorrupção no Brasil : diferentes sentidos para a corrupção e consequências para a democracia (2013-2018)

Abstract

The fight against corruption emerges from time to time in Brazil as a public problem, highly controversial and debated in civil society. It can be mobilized by a part of the activism to challenge the political establishment, as happened in the period from 2013 to 2018 – from the so-called “Brazilian spring” until the election of Bolsonaro –, which is marked by academics as the rise of a “crisis of democracy”. Regarding this specific period, the objective of the thesis is to analyze activism against corruption in Brazil, within civil society, highlighting the disputes of meanings surrounding the issue of corruption and its consequences for democracy. The “societal turn” seeks to leverage civil society as a heuristic element in the studies about corruption, considering it as a missing point in the traditional institutionalist collection. Based on the theoretical convergence of the pre-decisional political analysis, political process and pragmatist philosophy, yet to the interpretative frame analysis, the thesis begins with two premises: “there are movements and movements” – the publics are different, divergente, give varied meanings to corruption and stimulate new collective perceptions about it –; and “not every movement...” – activism will not always break with the current order, depending on how they mobilize meanings for the problem. The empirical analysis promotes a mapping of the units of analysis, the “publics”, which are organizations, movements, collectives and other groups that have the fight against corruption as a central objective or use this issue to promote their political activism. Around 500 publics were identified, active between 2013 and 2018, in two main arenas – the advocacy networks and the digital arena–, of which eight were selected for in-depth analysis. The analysis categories are inspired in the concepts of “core frame tasks”, by Snow and Benford (1988) – diagnostic, prognostic and motivational – and are combined with three “ideal type” meanings for corruption – republican, managerialist and populist. The analyses revealed (i) “two faces” of anti-corruption activism, that mobilize different meanings for the problem, that is, advocacy organizations and right-wing movements; (ii) while the first group mobilizes republican frames – corruption as the “reverse side of the Republic”, promoted by a “historical adversary”, which affects “citizens with rights”; (iii) the managerialist framing consists in a meeting point that gives normative and institutional comfort for both publics; and (iv) the right-wing movements mobilizes populist framing – corruption has a “name and ID” or is a “basket of indignation”, promoted by the “enemies of the nation”, which affects “the good citizens”. I conclude, finally, that it is (v) the last one that generates an escalation of authoritarism and violence in anti-corruption activism and violates important democratic principles, such as equality and social justice, political pluralism and institutional legitimacy.