Electoral corruption uncovered by Lava Jato and political rights in Brazil
Michael Freitas Mohallem
The effects of corruption can be felt in different ways in contemporary societies: in economic activity, in access to social rights and in the democratic processes. In Brazil, the central element in the public debate is the inefficiency of the justice system. References to impunity - which is embodied in the low rate of criminal convictions - as responsible for the failure in the fight against corruption are very common.
According to this view, recent legislative reforms have offered new and more effective investigative tools to the police and prosecutors, but they have failed to face the Brazilian Judiciary’s slowness and inability to punish. The popular perception that seems to prevail in the country - and was clearly manifested during the electoral process in 2018 - is that the practice of corruption, very associated with impunity, consolidates itself as an element of political immobility, of stagnation and of restraining the access of new political agents supposedly capable of acting with integrity. The lack of punishment of political agents who acquire competitive advantage in the electoral process through the use of illegal resources would lead to their perpetuation as elected congressmen, or at least as candidates with greater odds of success.
Although the emphasis on the role of the judiciary as a protector of political integrity shows a possibly exaggerated expectation of the role of the institutions in the fight against corruption and, in turn, plays down the responsibilities of individuals’ political choices, it is a view that recognizes the impact of corruption on political rights. As will be discussed below, in identifying structural obstacles in the competition between political parties, which are largely fueled by corruption, the problem is transferred from the sphere of merely political choice to the field of political rights, upon which the Judiciary is naturally expected to act.
This paper explores the relationship between the field of human rights - civil and political rights, more specifically, the rights (i) to participate in the conduction of public affairs and (ii) to vote in authentic elections - and the corruption perpetrated by public agents, political parties and large companies in the Brazilian civil construction market in recent times, as revealed by the investigations conducted in Operation “Lava Jato”. It is argued that the Brazilian State has failed to guarantee such rights by not preventing the dissemination of illegal financial resources in national and local elections over the last decades.
