New publication compares two anti-corruption initiatives to discuss the role of digital media in social mobilizations that aim to impact policymaking

Alice Mattoni and Fernanda Odilla explore the cases of the Ficha Limpa and the Ten Measures Against Corruption campaigns that became a bill through popular petition in Brazil.

Published on 20 November 2021

In 2011 594 brooms were placed in front of the Brazilian National Congress in protest against corruption. Credit: José Cruz/Senado Federal (28/09/2011)

Alice Mattoni and Fernanda Odilla have just published a new article at the academic journal Partecipazione e Conflitto in which they investigate the role of digital media in mechanisms that sustain the achievement of social movement outcomes. They focused on two anti-corruption initiatives and their respective key phases of mobilizations that aimed to impact policymaking in Brazil.

Mattoni and Odilla’s article is part of the special issue on "When, where and which kind of collective action matters?" which was edited by Lorenzo Bosi and Katrin Uba and focuses on collective action outcomes.

Titled “Digital Media, Activism, and Social Movements' Outcomes in the Policy Arena. The Case of Two Anti-Corruption Mobilizations in Brazil”, the article suggests that initiatives focusing more on online mobilization strategies without a clear advocacy approach to negotiate with (and pressure) public officials do not seem to be enough to promote policy changes. 

The paper uses as an example the cases of the Ficha Limpa (or Clean State Law) and the Ten Measures Against Corruption (TMAC) campaigns that became a bill through popular petition in Brazil. While the Ficha Lima, or Clean Slate Law, was rapidly approved with little changes in 2010 to ban candidates with dirty records, the “10 Measures against Corruption” ​​crafted a legal reform in the form of a package of bills that is under discussion since 2016 and faced backlashes with substantial changes from its original proposal.

Although both anti-corruption initiatives elicited public preference and placed their legal inputs in the public agenda of the political system, they were not equally successful in converting their ideas into new legislation. The Ten Measures was a campaign that occurred when the digital affordances for civil society actors were considerably higher, but it did not achieve positive outcomes as the Ficha Limpa did. 

The authors found that “the chances of achieving policy change are significantly enhanced with an appealing proposal with a bold message that has been collectively discussed and drafted before being submitted, along with clear strategies of negotiation (and political pressure) that combine online and offline tactics”. 

To Mattoni and Odilla, “digital media can easily amplify the effect of strategies in all phases of the policymaking process, particularly when creating awareness and when public support is needed”. The authors see digital media as a flexible resource that might effectively be combined with other mechanisms at various stages of the same mobilization to reach impact at the different phases of the policy-making process.