THE BRAZILIAN FEDERAL PUBLIC PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE: FROM DEFENDER OF RIGHTS TO ANTICORRUPTION FIGHTER (1988-2018)

Abstract

This article deals with the institutional change of the Brazilian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) from a rights-defending institution to an anticorruption fighter. It has two goals: the first one is empirical: to demonstrate that the constituents did not have corruption as a relevant concern, but that, despite this, the action of the MPF prioritized the fight against corruption in the 2000s over other equally relevant attributions. The second goal is analytical: to analyze and discuss the incremental institutional changes after 2003 that explain the MPF as a corruption fighter. To this end, the content of official documents of the National Constituent Assembly, the results of two surveys with members of the MPF, applied in 1996 and 2016, and data from the extrajudicial and judicial activities of the MPF between 2012 and 2018 are analyzed. We conclude that a combination of exogenous and endogenous factors facilitated institutional change, however there is an institutional model that allows more autonomy and discretion, which, in a given context, can be used, for example, against the political system.

Keywords
Historical institutionalism; change; incrementalism; Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office; accountability; discretion