O cidadão frente à corrupção: um estudo sobre o comportamento político

Abstract

The laws against electoral corruption (9840/99 and 135/10) that resulted from popular initiative projects demonstrate the existence of at least two types of political behavior against corruption in Brazil today. Citizens willing to exchange the vote or vote in notoriously corrupt politicians show a permissive attitude towards corruption. Citizens who engaged in collecting signatures show a combative attitude towards corruption. This thesis is a central issue to understand the coexistence of two different and opposite behavior against the corruption in Brazil, a permissive and other combative, identifying factors and variables associated with each. We consider the hypothesis that the different ways of reacting to corruption are associated with cultural and socioeconomic factors, specifically the differential control of resources by the citizens and their degree of involvement in collective projects (associations). In these terms, we consider the political behavior as a phenomenon associated with political culture, economic rationality and associative experience. The study of Putnam (2006) summarizes the main theoretical references of this thesis, that is, the Theory of Political Culture and the Theory of Rational Choice. Here along the thesis theoretical propositions and empirical evidence disseminated in the literature that support the hypothesis. In addition, we conducted a case study through individual interviews guided by a semi-structured script. The sample consisted of 16 residents in Juiz de Fora including eight informants have engaged in collecting signatures in favor of the laws mentioned and eight are not engaged in that project. The result reinforces the assumption that the two types of political behavior against corruption are associated with cultural factors, to the differentiated control over socio-economic resources and associative experience.