Paradoxes of democratic police reform strategies in Brazil: what are the trade-offs involved in incremental measures?

• Grant number: 23/02405-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: September 04, 2023
• End date: December 20, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law
• Principal Investigator: Marta Rodriguez de Assis Machado
• Grantee: Julia Maia Goldani
• Supervisor: Mariana Mota Prado
• Host Institution: Escola de Direito de São Paulo. Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Toronto (U of T), Canada
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/05078-4 - Debating the military police: multiple case study on the socio-legal construction of projects for democractic reform, BP.DR

Abstract

As part of a doctoral inquiry on the institutional obstacles to an effective democratization of Brazil's Military Polices, this research project aims to explore the paradoxes involved in incremental police reform strategies. It focuses on Brazil but connects the country's scenario with broader debates on institutional reform. While efforts to promote structural police reform have been unsuccessful since Brazil's return to democracy in 1988, various incremental measures have been implemented by State-level governments. Literature suggests that this course of action provides a way forward in contexts where resistance to institutional change hinders systemic reform (Prado & Trebilcock, 2018). However, in Brazil such measures have not managed to curb the Military Polices' violent practices (Machado, 2020). Therefore, this project questions: what are the trade-offs involved in incremental police reform strategies? A hypothesis is that these incremental reforms are feasible because their enactment through infra-legal and often vague regulations offer a margin for institutional conversion at the implementation level (Mahoney & Thelen, 2010), thus lowering the political cost for actors involved. The methodology combines a theoretical literature review and a qualitative analysis of the political process behind Rio de Janeiro's Pacifying Police Units, one of the doctoral research's case studies. Prof. Mariana Prado has extensively studied this empirical case, police reform and institutional reform processes in general. Additionally, UofT Faculty of Law is a leading center on topics of law and international development efforts, and has other experts in police reform in the Criminology Department. Thus, the research stay presents an opportunity for developing the proposed analyses. (AU)