Pub Date : 2024-08-13DOI: 10.1177/00027642241267936
Heba M. Khalil
This article investigates the role of legalism and legal processes in entrenching autocratic rule in post-revolution Egypt. In the aftermath of the spectacular street protests that swept Egypt, the movement for change was channeled into legal challenges handled by the legal system and judicial experts. This judicialization of politics ensured that an emerging autocrat could not only use the judiciary and the legal system to control the process of democratic transition but also reverse it. In examining the rise of autocratic rule in post-revolutionary Egypt, this article illustrates how the legal system, constitutionalism, law-making, and electoral politics became integral pawns in the consolidation of an illiberal agenda. Legalistic strategies, such as rewriting electoral laws, reforming judicial regulations, strengthening presidentialism, rewriting and amending the constitution, and other legislative reforms, enable the rise of autocratic legalism in the country. As the case of Egypt illustrates, autocratic legalism is a dangerous mode of entrenching autocratic rule that uses the legal system to reach power and then abuses the same legal processes to ensure no one can challenge the power capture. Although elections, parliaments, and judiciaries remain in place to maintain a façade of legality, they are increasingly captured by the executive within a context of growing policing, and restrictions on freedoms and rights.
{"title":"“This Country has Laws”: Legalism as a Tool of Entrenching Autocracy in Egypt","authors":"Heba M. Khalil","doi":"10.1177/00027642241267936","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241267936","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates the role of legalism and legal processes in entrenching autocratic rule in post-revolution Egypt. In the aftermath of the spectacular street protests that swept Egypt, the movement for change was channeled into legal challenges handled by the legal system and judicial experts. This judicialization of politics ensured that an emerging autocrat could not only use the judiciary and the legal system to control the process of democratic transition but also reverse it. In examining the rise of autocratic rule in post-revolutionary Egypt, this article illustrates how the legal system, constitutionalism, law-making, and electoral politics became integral pawns in the consolidation of an illiberal agenda. Legalistic strategies, such as rewriting electoral laws, reforming judicial regulations, strengthening presidentialism, rewriting and amending the constitution, and other legislative reforms, enable the rise of autocratic legalism in the country. As the case of Egypt illustrates, autocratic legalism is a dangerous mode of entrenching autocratic rule that uses the legal system to reach power and then abuses the same legal processes to ensure no one can challenge the power capture. Although elections, parliaments, and judiciaries remain in place to maintain a façade of legality, they are increasingly captured by the executive within a context of growing policing, and restrictions on freedoms and rights.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142227244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-13DOI: 10.1177/00027642241268548
Joe Curnow, Lucy Delgado
This article examines how fossil fuel divestment organizers at the University of Toronto (UofT) attempted to be in right relation with Indigenous organizations and students on campus by integrating Indigenous knowledges around relationality and countering/contesting Eurowestern relational practices. By examining the dialog of a workshop where Fossil-Free UofT discussed their hopes, concerns, and strategies for practicing right relationality, we argue that while participants did important work to build relations rooted in decolonial approaches, they were limited by the perception that they constantly needed to attend to (and often capitulate to) whiteness. We argue that this tension limits the impact of moves to decolonize non-Indigenous spaces.
{"title":"Attempting Decoloniality in a Youth Climate Campaign: Learning to Be in Right Relation and the Incommensurability of Making Indigenous Knowledges Legible","authors":"Joe Curnow, Lucy Delgado","doi":"10.1177/00027642241268548","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241268548","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how fossil fuel divestment organizers at the University of Toronto (UofT) attempted to be in right relation with Indigenous organizations and students on campus by integrating Indigenous knowledges around relationality and countering/contesting Eurowestern relational practices. By examining the dialog of a workshop where Fossil-Free UofT discussed their hopes, concerns, and strategies for practicing right relationality, we argue that while participants did important work to build relations rooted in decolonial approaches, they were limited by the perception that they constantly needed to attend to (and often capitulate to) whiteness. We argue that this tension limits the impact of moves to decolonize non-Indigenous spaces.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142227158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-13DOI: 10.1177/00027642241268541
Veena Meetoo, Rachel Rosen
This article explores how “race”, nation, and generation intersect to make and mark the category of “unaccompanied minor” in Britain, thereby shaping conditions of care for unaccompanied child migrants. Drawing on interviews with unaccompanied children and adult professionals, we trace how discourses of the unchildlike and unknowing child render unaccompanied children undeserving of support. We demonstrate how these discourses embedded in neo-colonial and generational logics breed inaction from adult professionals, often resulting in substandard or absent care. Our article contributes to conceptualizations of childhood in contexts of rising ethnonationalism, attending to how “race”, nation, and generation roost in the routine.
{"title":"The Formative Intersections of “Race”, Nation, and Generation: Learning from “Care” in the Lives of Unaccompanied Child Migrants in England","authors":"Veena Meetoo, Rachel Rosen","doi":"10.1177/00027642241268541","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241268541","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores how “race”, nation, and generation intersect to make and mark the category of “unaccompanied minor” in Britain, thereby shaping conditions of care for unaccompanied child migrants. Drawing on interviews with unaccompanied children and adult professionals, we trace how discourses of the unchildlike and unknowing child render unaccompanied children undeserving of support. We demonstrate how these discourses embedded in neo-colonial and generational logics breed inaction from adult professionals, often resulting in substandard or absent care. Our article contributes to conceptualizations of childhood in contexts of rising ethnonationalism, attending to how “race”, nation, and generation roost in the routine.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142227162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-12DOI: 10.1177/00027642241267911
Pamela Neumann
Although anti-feminist discourses and practices are often associated with “right-wing” governments, self-proclaimed “leftist” regimes can also be organized around patriarchal ideas. In this article, I analyze how the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua has employed gendered ideologies to consolidate and legitimate its political power. While the Ortega-Murillo regime initially used elite pact-making to gain control of Nicaragua’s legal institutions, their latter strategies, which included alliances with religious conservatives, threats and intimidation, and legal mechanisms, were mainly focused on restructuring and pacifying civil society. Within this process, targeting feminist ideas and feminist organizations has been a central component of their autocratic toolkit.
{"title":"Gendered Ideologies and Authoritarianism in Nicaragua","authors":"Pamela Neumann","doi":"10.1177/00027642241267911","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241267911","url":null,"abstract":"Although anti-feminist discourses and practices are often associated with “right-wing” governments, self-proclaimed “leftist” regimes can also be organized around patriarchal ideas. In this article, I analyze how the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua has employed gendered ideologies to consolidate and legitimate its political power. While the Ortega-Murillo regime initially used elite pact-making to gain control of Nicaragua’s legal institutions, their latter strategies, which included alliances with religious conservatives, threats and intimidation, and legal mechanisms, were mainly focused on restructuring and pacifying civil society. Within this process, targeting feminist ideas and feminist organizations has been a central component of their autocratic toolkit.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141946916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-09DOI: 10.1177/00027642241267933
Nella Van Dyke, Kyle Dodson, Paul Almeida, Jaqueline Novoa
At times, radicalized rightwing movements may influence political institutions to the point of weakening core democratic practices and promoting the tools of autocrats. We advance a theory of social movement partyism, arguing that formal political parties and social movements may forge an alliance through a relational opportunity-mobilization exchange, whereby the party provides political opportunities to the movement and the movement offers a highly energized base of support. In this environment, elected officials will be moved to take action in the electoral arena consistent with movement goals. We use a quantitative dataset at the House District level to examine the impact of the hate movement on members of Congress voting to object to certifying the presidential election results on January 6, 2021, net of a host of individual and social contextual variables. We find Congress members from districts with high levels of hate movement organizations, especially those formed in the Trump era, were more likely to object to the election results. We provide a reliability check using a model looking at additional measures of anti-democratic activity and autocratic tools. Our results provide strong support for our contention that social movement partyism involving an extremist movement influenced recent anti-democratic and authoritarian actions on the part of elected officials in the United States.
{"title":"Social Movement Partyism and Congressional Opposition to Certifying the 2020 Presidential Election Results in the United States","authors":"Nella Van Dyke, Kyle Dodson, Paul Almeida, Jaqueline Novoa","doi":"10.1177/00027642241267933","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241267933","url":null,"abstract":"At times, radicalized rightwing movements may influence political institutions to the point of weakening core democratic practices and promoting the tools of autocrats. We advance a theory of social movement partyism, arguing that formal political parties and social movements may forge an alliance through a relational opportunity-mobilization exchange, whereby the party provides political opportunities to the movement and the movement offers a highly energized base of support. In this environment, elected officials will be moved to take action in the electoral arena consistent with movement goals. We use a quantitative dataset at the House District level to examine the impact of the hate movement on members of Congress voting to object to certifying the presidential election results on January 6, 2021, net of a host of individual and social contextual variables. We find Congress members from districts with high levels of hate movement organizations, especially those formed in the Trump era, were more likely to object to the election results. We provide a reliability check using a model looking at additional measures of anti-democratic activity and autocratic tools. Our results provide strong support for our contention that social movement partyism involving an extremist movement influenced recent anti-democratic and authoritarian actions on the part of elected officials in the United States.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141922018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-09DOI: 10.1177/00027642241268531
Alice Mattoni, Roxana Bratu
This introduction examines the evolving landscape of digital technologies in the fight against corruption, exploring their potential as powerful levers for anti-corruption efforts and their far-reaching implications for the anti-corruption sector. The introduction argues that three key areas merit further exploration in the context of digital technologies and anti-corruption. First, the role of digital technologies, particularly social media and instant messaging platforms, in shaping public discourse on corruption. These technologies enable the rapid dissemination of information and facilitate collective action while also helping to shape narratives about corruption beyond their practical applications. Second, how the use of digital technologies in the fight against corruption changes the relational dynamics between grassroots actors and institutional bodies. These interactions range from collaborative partnerships to conflictual relationships, often with an element of contention. Third, the potential of digital technologies to profoundly change the measurement, identification, and exposure of corruption, particularly in those grassroots initiatives that may offer novel approaches to data collection on corrupt behavior. The introduction explains that by focusing on these three aspects, the special issue contributes to the growing literature on digital media and anti-corruption and offers new perspectives on the complex interplay between technological innovation and anti-corruption efforts. The introduction concludes with a presentation of the five articles included in the special issue, explaining how they delve deeper into the three areas of investigation outlined above, providing empirical findings and theoretical reflections on the transformative potential of digital technologies in the fight against corruption.
{"title":"Digital Technologies and Anti-Corruption: Reflections on Public Discourses, Actors’ Interactions, and the Measurement of Corruption","authors":"Alice Mattoni, Roxana Bratu","doi":"10.1177/00027642241268531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241268531","url":null,"abstract":"This introduction examines the evolving landscape of digital technologies in the fight against corruption, exploring their potential as powerful levers for anti-corruption efforts and their far-reaching implications for the anti-corruption sector. The introduction argues that three key areas merit further exploration in the context of digital technologies and anti-corruption. First, the role of digital technologies, particularly social media and instant messaging platforms, in shaping public discourse on corruption. These technologies enable the rapid dissemination of information and facilitate collective action while also helping to shape narratives about corruption beyond their practical applications. Second, how the use of digital technologies in the fight against corruption changes the relational dynamics between grassroots actors and institutional bodies. These interactions range from collaborative partnerships to conflictual relationships, often with an element of contention. Third, the potential of digital technologies to profoundly change the measurement, identification, and exposure of corruption, particularly in those grassroots initiatives that may offer novel approaches to data collection on corrupt behavior. The introduction explains that by focusing on these three aspects, the special issue contributes to the growing literature on digital media and anti-corruption and offers new perspectives on the complex interplay between technological innovation and anti-corruption efforts. The introduction concludes with a presentation of the five articles included in the special issue, explaining how they delve deeper into the three areas of investigation outlined above, providing empirical findings and theoretical reflections on the transformative potential of digital technologies in the fight against corruption.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141922412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-09DOI: 10.1177/00027642241268580
Suzan Alteri, Sunah Chung, Rhoda Zuk
Indian Residential Schools in Canada and Boarding Schools in the United States are continuous tragedies. The discovery of over 1,300 unmarked graves at the sites of five Catholic-run former schools in Canada in 2021 ignited our investigation of children’s picturebooks using an anti-colonialist lens. This paper discusses public reader responses on Goodreads to 28 picturebooks about residential/boarding schools published from 1993 through 2022. Using inductively developed codes, the authors report adult readers’ responses with implications about readers’ appreciation of the picturebook format as an educational resource and personal reflections and awareness of underrepresented information about the history of Indigenous populations.
{"title":"When a Book Makes you Cry: Reader Responses to Stories of the Carceral Child in Indigenous Picturebooks","authors":"Suzan Alteri, Sunah Chung, Rhoda Zuk","doi":"10.1177/00027642241268580","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241268580","url":null,"abstract":"Indian Residential Schools in Canada and Boarding Schools in the United States are continuous tragedies. The discovery of over 1,300 unmarked graves at the sites of five Catholic-run former schools in Canada in 2021 ignited our investigation of children’s picturebooks using an anti-colonialist lens. This paper discusses public reader responses on Goodreads to 28 picturebooks about residential/boarding schools published from 1993 through 2022. Using inductively developed codes, the authors report adult readers’ responses with implications about readers’ appreciation of the picturebook format as an educational resource and personal reflections and awareness of underrepresented information about the history of Indigenous populations.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141922003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-08DOI: 10.1177/00027642241268530
Rita Marchetti, Anna Stanziano, Roberto Mincigrucci, Simone Del Sarto, Susanna Pagiotti
Recent years have seen a growing interest in the role of the media in relation to corruption. This interest, however, has particularly concerned legacy media, leaving the role played by social media in relation to corruption largely unexplored. This study attempts to understand how social media contributes to the public representation of corruption through an analysis of the actors who discuss it and the topics they introduce into the debate. Despite social media’s ability to diversify both the actors able to intervene in the public debate and the sub-topics being discussed, some aspects of it, such as the affordances of the platforms that fuel polarization, favor political instrumentalization of corruptive phenomena. By investigating how social media deals with corruption based on a content analysis of the posts and an analysis of the actors who intervene in the discussions, this study fills a gap in the literature.
{"title":"It’s Social Media, Stupid! Opportunities and Constraints in the Representation of Corruption in and Through Social Media","authors":"Rita Marchetti, Anna Stanziano, Roberto Mincigrucci, Simone Del Sarto, Susanna Pagiotti","doi":"10.1177/00027642241268530","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241268530","url":null,"abstract":"Recent years have seen a growing interest in the role of the media in relation to corruption. This interest, however, has particularly concerned legacy media, leaving the role played by social media in relation to corruption largely unexplored. This study attempts to understand how social media contributes to the public representation of corruption through an analysis of the actors who discuss it and the topics they introduce into the debate. Despite social media’s ability to diversify both the actors able to intervene in the public debate and the sub-topics being discussed, some aspects of it, such as the affordances of the platforms that fuel polarization, favor political instrumentalization of corruptive phenomena. By investigating how social media deals with corruption based on a content analysis of the posts and an analysis of the actors who intervene in the discussions, this study fills a gap in the literature.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141928850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-08DOI: 10.1177/00027642241268555
Anwesha Chakraborty, Ina Kubbe
In recent years, digital technologies have been recognized as essential for combating corruption in healthcare by academics and practitioners alike. Our study focuses on India, where healthcare policies increasingly emphasize digital public health services. We analyze multi-stakeholder perspectives emerging in the country post the 2020 launch of a national digital health plan. The study uses interviews, participant observation, and official video transcripts to critically appraise these perspectives. Although government actors view digital innovation as a panacea for issues like inclusion, transparency, and service delivery, other stakeholders raise concerns on wide-ranging issues. These include infrastructural and design challenges, unclear policies on data privacy, and the opaque role of private companies in providing digital solutions. Particularly, grassroots actors warn of new opportunities for corruption due to extensive digitization. This article explores the dichotomy between policy intentions and practical realities, highlighting the complex relationship between digital transformation in healthcare and corruption control.
{"title":"Improving Transparency in Service Delivery to Fight Corruption? Mapping Multi-Stakeholder Voices on Digitization in the Indian Public Healthcare Sector","authors":"Anwesha Chakraborty, Ina Kubbe","doi":"10.1177/00027642241268555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241268555","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, digital technologies have been recognized as essential for combating corruption in healthcare by academics and practitioners alike. Our study focuses on India, where healthcare policies increasingly emphasize digital public health services. We analyze multi-stakeholder perspectives emerging in the country post the 2020 launch of a national digital health plan. The study uses interviews, participant observation, and official video transcripts to critically appraise these perspectives. Although government actors view digital innovation as a panacea for issues like inclusion, transparency, and service delivery, other stakeholders raise concerns on wide-ranging issues. These include infrastructural and design challenges, unclear policies on data privacy, and the opaque role of private companies in providing digital solutions. Particularly, grassroots actors warn of new opportunities for corruption due to extensive digitization. This article explores the dichotomy between policy intentions and practical realities, highlighting the complex relationship between digital transformation in healthcare and corruption control.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141928013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-07DOI: 10.1177/00027642241268572
Fernanda Odilla, Clarissa Veloso
This article explores the advantages and constraints affecting anti-corruption grassroots initiatives that employ the “naming and shaming” strategy. It questions why activists choose such a confrontational approach while examining the cases of two Brazilian anti-corruption bottom-up initiatives. Both fight corruption by deploying bots to assist in auditing congressional members’ expenses, and then use social media to expose their suspicious findings. Findings, based on a qualitative analysis, show that publicly exposing those who misuse public money was a tactic adopted only when the expected response from law enforcement and anti-corruption authorities fell short. This study suggests that having a participatory accountability system is insufficient and considered disappointing if no inquiries and sanctions follow civic action. As an unforeseen effect, the digital exposure of officeholders garnered media attention and expanded the initiatives’ support base. Nevertheless, activists acknowledge the risks associated with their belligerent activities and the challenges of financing, maintaining engagement, and expanding the scope of their actions, despite the high expectations that digital technologies would reduce costs and support collective action.
{"title":"Citizens and Their Bots That Sniff Corruption: Using Digital Technology to Monitor and Expose Politicians Who Misuse Public Money","authors":"Fernanda Odilla, Clarissa Veloso","doi":"10.1177/00027642241268572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241268572","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the advantages and constraints affecting anti-corruption grassroots initiatives that employ the “naming and shaming” strategy. It questions why activists choose such a confrontational approach while examining the cases of two Brazilian anti-corruption bottom-up initiatives. Both fight corruption by deploying bots to assist in auditing congressional members’ expenses, and then use social media to expose their suspicious findings. Findings, based on a qualitative analysis, show that publicly exposing those who misuse public money was a tactic adopted only when the expected response from law enforcement and anti-corruption authorities fell short. This study suggests that having a participatory accountability system is insufficient and considered disappointing if no inquiries and sanctions follow civic action. As an unforeseen effect, the digital exposure of officeholders garnered media attention and expanded the initiatives’ support base. Nevertheless, activists acknowledge the risks associated with their belligerent activities and the challenges of financing, maintaining engagement, and expanding the scope of their actions, despite the high expectations that digital technologies would reduce costs and support collective action.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141946917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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