Publications
Vilaça, Luiz, Marco Morucci, and Victoria Paniagua "Anti-Political Class Bias in Corruption Sentencing" forthcoming in American Journal of Political Science (pending replication of data)
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Abstract: Are corruption trials that involve the highest-ranks in the public sphere and large private companies biased? In this paper, we seek to answer this question by studying the prosecution and treatment in the courts of elected politicians, bureaucrats, and businesspeople involved in Brazil’s famous “Operac ̧a ̃o Lava Jato” (Operation Car Wash), the largest corruption and money laundering investigation carried out in history. Leveraging both an original database that traces the trajectory of the universe of the 3,154 cases opened as part of Lava Jato, as well as 46 qualitative interviews, we show that judges’ sentencing decisions were not governed by a partisan logic. Instead, we find that judges were harsher when sentencing any elected politician compared to all other defendants in the public and private sectors. We conceptualize these findings as evidence of a type of political bias in courts that has been previously unexplored, anti-political class bias.
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Vilaça, Luiz "A Social Movement Model for Judicial Behavior: Evidence from Brazil’s Anti-Corruption Movements" forthcoming in Social Forces
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Abstract: While studies show that public opinion and educational workshops promoted by nonprofits affect judicial behavior, it remains unclear whether and how social movements affect judges’ decision-making through disruptive actions. I develop a framework to explain the conditions under which and the mechanisms through which social movement mobilization affects the decision-making of judges, drawing on a mixed-methods study of anti-corruption protests in Brazil. I constructed an original dataset of decisions of corruption cases at the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice (2003-2016). Results showed that actions that target judicial cases (case-focused protests)—but not protests that simply put the issue on the public agenda—are associated with higher chances that judges will decide in ways that are aligned with the movements’ demands. I supplemented the quantitative data with a qualitative analysis of appeals on two investigations of similar crimes and some of the same defendants but with different outcomes in appellate courts: Sandcastle (Castelo de Areia) and Car Wash (Lava Jato). Drawing on 110 interviews with prosecutors and judges and document analysis of criminal charges and judicial decisions, I show that there are two mechanisms through which case-focused protests affect judicial behavior: by threatening the personal reputation of judges and the legitimacy of courts.
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Vilaça, Luiz "Framing and Prosecutorial Discretion: Evidence from Brazil" forthcoming in Law & Society Review
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Abstract: Prior studies in the U.S. argue that the discretionary decisions of federal prosecutors regarding which issues to prioritize are shaped by the politicians who appoint them, while studies on state prosecutors emphasize the role of press coverage and public opinion. However, these studies leave untheorized whether prosecutors’ discretionary decisions are also affected by how their peers frame issues within and beyond their organization. Building on the scholarship of collective action frames, this study develops a framework to explain how prosecutors’ framing work affects their peers’ decisions about which issues to focus on. I draw on the case of Brazil, where federal prosecutors focused on crime-fighting and human rights, but in the mid-2010s switched focus to corruption following a large-scale investigation called Lava Jato. I compare Lava Jato with two similarly large investigations that failed to transform corruption into the dominant issue within the organization. Drawing on 131 original interviews, I show how federal prosecutors’ framing work can persuade their colleagues to focus on the same issue through two stages: 1) conceptualization of versatile frames that speak to problems a variety of prosecutors care about and 2) diffusion of frames through professional meetings – providing roadmaps for how other prosecutors can implement the new frame – and to the press, increasing public attention.
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Vilaça, Luiz. 2024. “Unanticipated Outcomes: The Criminalization of Political Corruption in Brazil.” Sociology of Development, pp. 1-27.
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Abstract: In contexts where political corruption is endemic, why would political elites build state capacity to prosecute corruption? Prior studies emphasize exogenous pressure from social movements or international organizations and the rise of political leaders committed to fighting corruption. While important, these factors are not sufficient to explain the case of Brazil, where politicians empowered investigative bureaucracies, even though several political elites later became victims of prosecution. Drawing on document analysis of charges and sentences and on 110 in-depth interviews with prosecutors, judges, and politicians, I develop a framework that focuses on the processes through which corruption is criminalized on the ground. By examining the initiatives of politicians in interaction with the actions of civil servants who investigate and prosecute cases of corruption, I show that political elites empowered investigators because, at the time, these steps seemed innocuous. Prosecutors later reframed how they talked about corruption—getting other colleagues to pay attention to this issue—and learned new strategies to uncover corruption schemes, but these changes happened under the radar: they were not visible to politicians. Popular pressure also led courts to broaden the definition of corruption and lower the threshold of evidence for it, but these decisions took place after the politicians’ actions.
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Vilaça, Luiz and Jacob Turner. 2024. “The New Corruption Crusaders: Security-Sector Ties as an Anti-Corruption Voting Heuristic” Latin American Politics and Society, pp. 1-22.
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Abstrasct: Despite the salience of corruption in elections in Latin America and beyond, it remains unclear what makes certain candidates attractive to voters as solutions to address corruption. Building on studies about the effect of candidates’ professional affiliation on voting behavior, we hypothesize that police and military officers are perceived to be more competent to address corruption. We test our theoretical expectations through an online survey of Brazilian voters with an image-based factorial experiment that presents respondents with three randomly generated handbills, varying candidates’ professional affiliations and potential confounders, such as economic policy, insider versus outsider status, and demographic features. Our results demonstrate that candidates affiliated with the police or the military are perceived to be more effective at reducing corruption, all else equal. The effect of police or military professions on candidates’ perceived effectiveness to fight corruption varies according to respondents’ ideology and is particularly significant among conservative voters.
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Vilaça, Luiz. 2023. “Communication and Decision-Making Processes: Group-level Determinants of State Performance.” Social Problems XX, pp. 1–21.
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Abstract: Dominant explanations for variation in performance between state organizations focus on macro-level factors, such as political support, and meso-level factors, such as civil service capacity. However, these factors cannot account for why different groups within the same state organization perform better than others. I leverage a comparative analysis of state officials working under particularly challenging circumstances—task forces of prosecutors investigating high-level corruption in Brazil—to develop a framework to explain how small-group communication and decision-making processes affect performance. Drawing on document analysis and 124 original interviews with federal investigators, I argue that, even when we account for macro- and meso-level factors, prosecutors performed better when they cultivated frequent communication and collective decision-making. This study shows the mechanisms through which these processes affect performance: while frequent communication enables group members to generate knowledge connections that help them make unforeseen discoveries, collective decision-making helps build defensive alignment, which allows members to protect the group from external pressures and manage internal tensions.
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Vilaça, Luiz. 2020. “When Bureaucrats Become Activists.” Mobilization: An International Quarterly 25 (3): 405–424.
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Abstract: There is growing interest in how activist bureaucrats change policies; however, it remains unclear how bureaucrats become activists. This article develops a framework for the emergence of bureaucratic activism using the case of Brazilian prosecutors in the Belo Monte dam, a project that drew attention due to its social and environmental impacts. I show that two different types of prosecutors were involved in this case: activist prosecutors, who were committed to the proactive defense of affected communities, and conventional prosecutors, neutral agents that resorted to traditional tactics. Based on 82 interviews, document analysis, and participant observation, I argue that rather than being self-selected, prosecutors within conducive settings engaged in activism after they joined the state by developing long-term ties with local groups. By discovering the problems faced by affected communities and mediating their struggles with other policy actors, prosecutors internalized the grievances of these groups, building commitments to defend their causes.
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McDonnell, Erin; Luiz Vilaça. 2021. “Pockets of Effectiveness and Islands of Integrity: Variation in Quality of Governance within Central State Administrations.” In: Marcia Grimes, Bo Rothstein, Monika Bauhr and Andreas Bågenholm (ed.) Handbook of Quality of Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Abstract: The administrative quality of states is typically measured at the level of national governments, tacitly presuming organizational strength is evenly distributed throughout the organizations comprising central state administration. However, those organizations vary substantially in providing impartial, effective, and honest administration. This chapter examines variation in the quality of government within central state administrations, a newly consolidating subfield identified with “pockets of effectiveness” or “islands of integrity.” This scholarship analyzes how some state agencies manage to offer high-quality administration in challenging institutional contexts where many peer organizations are weak, ineffectual, or corrupt. The chapter discusses methodological challenges and traces the history of first- and second-wave scholarship in this subfield. Then through meta-analysis, we identify four major theoretical themes in prior scholarship: technical competence and incentives, external networks, autonomy, and organizational culture. The chapter concludes with promising avenues for future research, identifying ways scholars and practitioners interested in quality of government broadly can benefit from the findings of this subfield.
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Von Bulow, Marisa; Luiz Vilaça; Pedro Abelin. 2018. “Varieties of Digital Practices for Activism: students and mobilization in Chile.” Information, Communication & Society, vol. 1, pp. 1-19.
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Abstract: Recent protests throughout the world have fueled debates about how social movement organizations use digital tools. In this article, we analyze the variety of digital activist practices (DAPs) enacted by Chilean student movement organizations over time (2011–2016). We define DAPs as proactive actions that seek to achieve political impacts in a particular context through the use of digital tools. Based on content analysis of Facebook posts and in- depth interviews with key informants, we show that movement actors have appropriated digital tools in diverse and asymmetric ways, and that asymmetries have remained constant over time. The article also shows that DAPs sponsored by organizations vary across three dimensions: online presence, goals, and the audiences to which they speak. This variation is explained by differing levels of financial and human resources, and, most importantly, by the choices actors make as they interpret political constraints and challenges in particular contexts. These choices are, in turn, informed by the political views of rotating sets of student leaders.
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