CLINTON, NY – A new comparative survey of nearly 150 career civil servants (66 in the U.S. and 82 in Brazil) probed the differences in bureaucratic responses to democratic backsliding with civil servants who served under U.S. President Trump and Brazilian President Bolsonaro.
In the paper co-authored by Hamilton College Associate Professor of Sociology Jaime L. Kucinskas, and University of São Paulo Professor Mariana Costa Silveira, published by the International Institute of Administrative Sciences , researchers found that comparable pressures on the two groups did not produce comparable responses.
Brazilian civil servants in the survey were more likely to mobilize against democratic breakdown through more collective, open, and confrontational acts, whereas their U.S. counterparts adopted more individualized and cautious strategies.
Supportive professional cultures and strong internal and external networks emerged as key facilitators for pushback among organizations, researchers found. "Having strong relationships with citizens and strong support from professional organizations enabled more overt acts of courage in alignment with their agency missions - to support the environment and indigenous interests in Brazil. In the U.S., a cautious professional culture and strong commitments to non-partisan responsiveness to a legitimately elected president curbed civil servants' behavior, even in standing up for the public interest, agency missions, or democracy," Kucinskas said.
At the individual level, moral courage was associated with a commitment to agency missions, a sense of self-effacacy, long-term moral reflection, and civic engagement.
"Our central finding is that, although civil servants in both countries faced broadly similar pressures, they responded in markedly different ways, and that this divergence appears to be shaped less by the pressures themselves, or by individual disposition alone, than by the contextual structures, cultures, and support available to them.
"Our study contributes a cross-national comparative perspective on bureaucratic responses to democratic erosion and integrates existing insights into a comparative framework to guide future research on defending democratic norms under illiberal rule," she said.
Summary of findings:
Civil servants are better able to act with moral courage, and are more shielded from political retaliation, where meso-level organizational conditions support such action during periods of democratic backsliding.
A professional culture grounded in democratic values and with legal and external support for reporting misconduct enable civil servants to uphold their agency's mission and the law under political pressure.
Supportive workplaces that encourage collaboration among peers and supervisors help civil servants share strategies and sustain valued work in the face of political threats.
Strong ties to professional associations and other external support networks enhance civil servants' capacity to defend democratic norms and, as the Brazilian case shows, can be decisive in enabling collective and open forms of moral courage.
