{"id":1172,"date":"2016-06-12T19:33:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T19:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.observingbrazil.com\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2019-09-09T01:18:51","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T01:18:51","slug":"will-brazils-prosecutocracy-transform-brazil-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/will-brazils-prosecutocracy-transform-brazil-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Brazil’s ‘Prosecutocracy’ Transform Brazil for the Better?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will any good come of Brazil\u2019s new prosecutocracy?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All are amazed at how Brazil\u2019s Federal Police, Public Prosecutors, and Courts continue to arraign high-level politicians and private sector accomplices on charges of corruption. We are witnessing an extraordinary and unprecedented application of the rule of law, quite unlike anywhere else. Do not be fooled, however; this is not a popular movement to clamp down on corruption. Instead, this is a struggle between politicians and an emergent legal technocracy, or better put, a \u201cprosecutocracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Brazilians ought to realize that retributive justice (prosecution) cannot substitute the political reforms needed to dig the country out of its current hole. Given the political landscape, these reforms may be difficult to obtain.<\/p>\n

Advances of the rule of law typically adhere to a pattern.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A crime leads to popular calls for reform, which gain the adherence of the press. Principled legislators and the parliamentary opposition then demand reform. Finally, new laws are enacted and applied, and the crime finds resolution in both curative and preventive measures. In the US, this sort of process gave rise to a professional civil service after the assassination of President James Garfield, critical amendments to the US freedom of information law in the wake of Watergate, and a host of other reforms, from environmental regulation to consumer protection policies.<\/p>\n

Yet today\u2019s Brazil has no such story lines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Discoveries of grand corruption in Petrobras set off a showdown among different parts of the state, with no systemic reforms in sight. Brazil\u2019s prosecutocracy \u2013 crusading judges, prosecutors, and police \u2013 inspired popular mobilization and press support for punishment, <\/em>rather than reform<\/em>. The opposition has remained silent \u2013 as its representatives have also been criminally implicated \u2013 and no political reforms of note have moved forward.<\/p>\n

Three Obstacles to Reform<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Brazil’s \u00a0political elite, legal elite, and media elite suffer from irreconciliable\u00a0‘character problems\u2019.\u00a0These may prevent Brazil from\u00a0using\u00a0the current crisis to vitalize greater institutional resilience and strength.<\/p>\n

First, the political elite is rotten.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Show me a group of legislators that have the integrity and ideological moderation to lead a drive for reform. As I\u2019ve written<\/a> before, Brazil suffers from political recruitment dilemmas. Good people need take heart and go into politics.<\/p>\n

Second, Brazil\u2019s legal elite believe themselves above the rule of law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, FGV transparency audits<\/a> as well as a study by Article 19<\/a>, an NGO, show that the Public Prosecutor and the Judiciary are among the worst adherents to basic transparency obligations, as established in 2011 by Brazil\u2019s new access to information law, 12.527. It is also clear that the judiciary does not comply with constitutional ceilings for remuneration. As a result, Brazil\u2019s is one of the most expensive and inefficient judiciaries in the world (observe \u2013 salaries as multiples of per capita income)<\/a>. In effect, the behavior of these entities seems to demonstrate a belief that they are \u2018above the rule of law\u2019.<\/p>\n

Third, Brazil\u2019s media provides no noteworthy coverage of proponents of reform.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I have written<\/a>, the press\u2019 disinterest in championing political reform is strategic rather than accidental. Without a strong vein\u00a0of public interest reporting in the media, prospective reforms will meet with little political support.<\/p>\n

This leaves Brazil in a quandary.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Who moves reform forward? As I have suggested<\/a>, Brazil\u2019s provisions for popular petitions appear to be perhaps the best solution. As it stands, Brazil\u2019s prosecutocracy is undoubtedly doing good by purging the system. But an unhealthy system requires perpetual purging \u2013 an undesirable situation at best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will any good come of Brazil\u2019s new prosecutocracy? All are amazed at how Brazil\u2019s Federal Police, Public Prosecutors, and Courts continue to arraign high-level politicians and private sector accomplices on charges of corruption. We are witnessing an extraordinary and unprecedented application of the rule of law, quite unlike anywhere else. Do not be fooled, however; Read more about Will Brazil’s ‘Prosecutocracy’ Transform Brazil for the Better?<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,159,145],"tags":[166,167,168,152],"class_list":["post-1172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corruption","category-political-reform","category-rule-of-law","tag-brazil-corruption","tag-brazil-courts","tag-ministerio-publico","tag-public-prosecutor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1609,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions\/1609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}