Small corruptions

It has been a great success in social media a campaign called “small corruptions” promoted by CGU, the institution responsible for assist the Brazilian President in issues related to transparency, fight against corruption, among others subjects co-related. The campaign reached 10 million accesses in Facebook, which is a really unusual achievement to public institutions in Brazil.

This success may be explained by the fact that the wave of protests against corruption in social media has increased a lot in Brazil since last year. Nevertheless, the most interesting thing about this campaign is the fact that CGU is encouraging people to pay attention not to the politicians and big companies actions, but to their own behavior.

The change for a more ethical Brazil starts in each one of us. Small corruptions: say no.

Each post shows an example of unethical or illegal attitude

The CGU’s role is to punish corrupts in the public sector, but above of all is to prevent corruption to happen in public institutions. In this activity, there are several issues that need to be monitored and the most visible is the behavior of public agents, politicians and civil servants. But there is also an invisible power (1) that permeates the behavior of these actors: the culture.

According to the site of CGU, the main goal of the campaign is to “aware citizens about the importance of fighting against unethical attitudes – or even illegal attitudes – that are culturally accepted and have its severity ignored or undermined”. In this sense, it could be argued that the campaign aims a long-term result, which is based on the expectation that better individuals lead to a better society, and a better society gives rise to better governments (2).

However, it seems fair to say that this is not exactly the main point of the campaign. The point seems to be the deconstruction of the general idea that Brazilian people are corrupt (this idea is pretty common. Have a look at this article, for example) and, by doing this, the campaign aims to make citizens believe that the fight against corruption worth. Pereira (3), an auditor of CGU explains that the campaign is a way to show that those who believe that corruption is part of Brazilian nature are wrong. He affirms that this belief means that Brazilian society has failed, and hence, that there would not be a way out. The campaign, according to him, reminds people that unethical and illegal attitudes practiced by individuals can be prevented individually. In other words, the society has not failed and there is the possibility to the country reduces its level of corruption.

Therefore, the campaign aims to amplify the interest of society in monitoring the Governments and, consequently, demand more transparency, accountability and ethics. By focusing on invisible power, the campaign highlights the importance of constant vigilance over our own attitudes and over public institutions.

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1. Invisible power is one of the forms of power and works by "shaping meaning and what is acceptable".

Gaventa, J (2006). Finding the spaces for change: a power analysis. IDS Bulletin Volume 37 number 6 November 2006.

2. This idea is related to the concept of social capital in the way discussed by Lipset (1959) and studied by Putnam (1993).

Putnam, Robert D. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Lipset, S. M. (1959). Some Social Requisites of Democracy. American Political Science Review 53, no. 1, pp. 69-105.

3. Claudenir Brito Pereira is Chief Auditor of the Internal Audit of the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT). Article in Portuguese available here

Government co-option of popular protests

Sound of a crowd screaming incomprehensible words. Dozens of people on the street, carrying flags and banners. In forefront, small groups are holding banners where is possible to read in order:

1)   I cannot drive a car, but I can choose who drives my country

2)   You’ll see that your son don’t flee from ballot box*

3)   We’ll do the best election of Brazil

4)   With 16 years old you can already vote**

5)   Your vote worth an whole Brazil

6)   #come to ballot box ***

7)   Electoral Justice: tse.jus.br

* Brazilian Anthem says: You’ll see that your son don’t flee from fight

** In Brazil, the vote is mandatory above 18, but voluntary above 16

*** During the 2013 protests, the trend topic in social media was “# come to street"

The advertising campaign, promoted by the Supreme Electoral Court of Brazil (TSE), seems to remind citizens that time for changing has finally come. With clear references to the 2013 protests, TSE’s campaign highlights the elections as the peak of democracy and encourages the young to vote. At first, this approach seems reasonable, since the campaign co-relates street’s voice with election’s voice. It takes a while to understand what this co-option of popular protests by a Governmental institution may represents.

TSE borrows the language of the demonstrators and, by doing this, co-relates the 2014 elections with the Confederations Cup protests. On the one hand, the campaign presents elections as a time to the citizen pursuit answers to the general dissatisfaction showed during the last year and emphasizes the importance of choosing the representatives for the future of the country. On the other hand, the campaign invites people to replace the streets action (protest) for the ballot box action (vote). This second feature is the reason why the co-option of popular protest by TSE is problematic.

Replace the “street” for the “ballot box” does not make sense, since democracy involves the capability of citizens to choose their representatives and to pressure politicians as well. During the elections, the focus on the role of citizen as a voter is understandable, nevertheless the cross reference used in this campaign contributes, in certain way, to undermine the importance of social mobilization in the democratic process. Paul Hilder (2007) alerts that by borrowing the clothes and tactics of social movements Governments may cause a confusion “in the public mind about what civil society campaigning actually is and how it can change collective decisions”.

Therefore, the slogan “# come to ballot box”, that has been used in all TSE’s communicative actions during this elections, contains an ideological bias and, in a certain way, neutralizes 2013 protest. Although trying to empower the citizen through the vote, the campaign trivializes the last year protests and undermines the role of civil society in democracy.

Come to street

You'll see that your son don't flee from fight

Hilder, P. et al (2007) Contentious citizens - civil society’s role in campaigning for social change. The Young Foundation, pp. 58-61

Gender inequality in politics

The inequality between genders is present in different aspects of life in society, including politics. Historically, this is a sector dominated by men, which can be explained, on the one hand, by the traditional roles of gender; and, on the other hand, by the exclusion promoted by the political field itself (Secretaria de Política para as Mulheres, 2014).

Although the Brazilian Electoral law states that at least 30% of the candidates must be women, in the 2014 Brazilian general elections, among 13,642 candidates, only 3,955 were women; which represents 28.99% of the total (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, 2014).

In addition to the insufficient number of female candidates, the parties do not invest at campaigns of women candidates as much as they invest at campaigns of men candidates. As consequence the imbalance continues. Despite the fact that women represent 51.1% of the Brazilian population, they occupy only few federal elective political positions, as showed bellow:

•          Among the 27 states’ governors, only 2 are women

•          Among the 513 Deputies, only 45 are women

•          Among 81 Senators, only 10 are women 

(Data: Supreme Electoral Court of Brazil)

The increase of number of female politicians is important to allow women to speak for themselves and, thereby, enlarge the plurality of “power-discourse” (Harvey, 1989). When parties do not provide the conditions to women reach power, they are denying pluralism and consequently decreasing the acceptance that other voices, beyond male ones, are authentic and legitimate.

Therefore, the supremacy of men in politics is a way to maintain the traditional role of gender and the division of labour. In this sense, the unequal distribution of political power affects other fields of society life that go beyond politics. For this reason, this issue deserves attention of Governments and citizens.  

Carlota Queirós (1892-1982)
First female Deputy in Latin America

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Harvey, David. The condition of postmodernity. Vol. 14. Oxford: Blackwell, 1989.

Secretaria de Política para as Mulheres (2014). Mais mulheres no poder

[Available at <http://www.mulheres.gov.br/mais-mulheres-no-poder/>] [Accessed at 15 October 2014].

Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (2014). Estatísticas Eleitorais 2014. [online] [Available at < http://www.tse.jus.br/eleicoes/estatisticas/estatisticas-candidaturas-2014/estatisticas-eleitorais-2014>] [Accessed at 15 October 2014].

Learning from Friends of Earth campaigns

Last Friday, the students of “Critical Issues in Campaigning” visited Friends of Earth to speak with Paul Steedman. Some of the issues highlighted by him during the meeting are helpful in the analysis of the “You Poll-Watcher”, a campaign that has been monitored by this blog.

One of the first issues pointed out by Paul Steedman was the fact that people are getting more and more sceptical about the possibility of influencing politicians. Therefore, according to him, it is important to offer opportunities to people do something. In this sense, empowerment is a really good campaigning tactic.

As seen in the last post, the “You Poll-Watcher” invites voters, at the end time of the Election Day, to take pictures of the electronic ballot boxes’ extracts and send them to the You Poll-Watcher’s team. The purpose is to verify the official result of the election.

Infographic adapted from www.facebook.com/vocefiscal

This means that the voters are encouraged to participate actively. If the campaign’s approach was, for example, stimulate people to protest, probably the mobilization would not be as big as it has been:

•           20,056 likes on Facebook

•           104,875 views on Youtube

•           12,500 app downloads

•           15,000 ballot boxes' extracts collected

Nevertheless, a great number of extracts of ballot boxes does not mean necessarily a good sample and, for this reason, the final verification may be not possible. Anyway, as Paul Steedman highlighted during the meeting, the main issue about campaigning is change the rules. In this sense, it seems fair to say that the real purpose of this campaign is to make people think about the accountability of Brazilian Elections and, at the same time, offer an alternative for the current electronic vote procedure.

Since 1996, Brazilian Elections are exclusively electronic and there is no physical register of the votes. The campaign suggests a hybrid system, in which the voter, after registry his electronic vote, print an extract and deposit it inside a traditional ballot box. Therefore, in case of controversy, it would be possible to recount the votes.

In order to contribute for such big change, the campaign needs to keep its momentum. As Paul Steedman said, campaigning require creativity and a strong understand about political power. Does the “You Poll-Watcher” have these characteristics?

:: You poll-watcher: a campaign to increase elections accountability in Brazil

Last Sunday was the Election Day in Brazil, a day that can be considered the peak of the democracy. Despite the fact that Brazil has been a democratic country for the last three decades, democracy is not something ready or finished (Chadwick, 2013) and need constant surveillance. That is why campaigns as “You poll-watcher” are so important. 

Since 1996, Brazilian’s elections are based in electronic ballot boxes, computers used exclusively for the elections (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, 2014). The organizers of the campaign, as you can see in the video below, argument that the system is not secure and invite the voters to increase the accountability of the elections by photographing the extracts of the electronic ballot boxes (Você Fiscal, 2014).

Subtitles included by this blog. 

To see the original video click here

Although the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) admits that was possible to change the sequence of votes in the tests realized in 2012, in defense of the systems' security TSE affirms that was not possible to link voters' names and votes. The Court also assures that is not possible to manipulate the results of the election, since the electoral system works in such way that, if the system is under attack, the electronic ballot box does not produce valid results (Você Fiscal, 2014).

Brazilian electronic ballot box
(Photograph:www.abadianoticia.com.br)

The campaign is audacious and the results are uncertain. Nevertheless, since one of the roles of social movements is to bring new themes to the public agenda (Diani and Porta, 2006), the main contribution of this campaign seems to be the discussion about a lack of accountability in the Brazilian elections. In order to analyze this issue, among others, this blog will keep an eye on this campaign.

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Diani, M. and della Porta, D. (2006) Social Movements: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell.

Chadwick, A. (2013) The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press  

Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (2014). Electronic ballot. [online] 

[Available at <http://www.tse.jus.br/eleicoes/biometria-e-urna-eletronica/urna-eletronica>] [Accessed at 6 October 2014].

Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (2014). Security. [online]

[Available at <http://www.tse.jus.br/eleicoes/biometria-e-urna-eletronica/seguranca>] [Accessed at 6 October 2014].

Você Fiscal (2014). Carta aberta ao eleitor. [online]

[Available at <www.vocefiscal.org/carta-aberta>] [Accessed at 6 October 2014].