As in many countries, dealing with corruption is a huge issue in Brazil. Its impact on broader society was regularly cited by protesters demanding better public services last year.
Professor Mariana Prado and Lindsey Carson have taken a detailed look at Brazil’s approach to tackling corruption and we’ve recently published their findings.
The found that, while levels of petty corruption have declined, grand corruption remains a big issue. Brazil is attempting to deal with this by injecting a sense of competition, with overlapping anti-corruption agencies adopting a variety of approaches, which they characterise as ‘institutional multiplicity’. This is reaping dividends, particularly at the oversight and investigation stages.
Institutional multiplicity in action:
However, the effectiveness of institutional multiplicity in the oversight and investigatory institutions is currently undermined by huge bottlenecks at the punishment phase. Big delays in hearing cases, combined with the requirement for extremely high standards of proof and a plethora of appeal options often means that justice is delayed – sometimes indefinitely.
Lindsey talks about the research findings, what surprised her and the potential insights for African countries:
The full research is available here:
- Research briefing: Tackling corruption through institutional multiplicity
- Working paper: Mapping corruption and its institutional determinants in Brazil
- Working paper: Brazilian anti-corruption legislation and its enforcement
