Bureaucratic Grit: How Mid-Level State Bureaucrats Advanced Immigrant Rights Laws in Brazil and Paraguay

• In Event: Political Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Bureaucratic Politics (Table 15)

Abstract

Overcoming political opposition to enact inclusive policies, such as those that expand immigrants’ access to legalization and rights, can be difficult for executive bureaucrats. These obstacles are salient within bureaucracies of the global South, where weak public institutions hinder bureaucratic action. Indeed, dominant state bureaucracy theories posit that MLSBs’ entrepreneurship requires strong institutions to flourish. However, emerging scholarship on bureaucratic activism in the global South shows that mid-level state bureaucrats (MLSBs) have fought for social justice within weak institutions by building multiple alliances with stakeholders. However, less is known about what happens when MLSBs’ initiatives fail. I contribute to this scholarship by introducing the concept of “bureaucratic grit”—defined as networks of bureaucrats who support one another to advance challenging initiatives despite setbacks—to examine how MLSBs in the Global South push their initiatives forward amid multifaceted institutional dysfunction and repeated failures. My study compares MLSBs’ efforts to advance immigrant rights laws in Brazil and Paraguay, despite political resistance and organizational dysfunction. I draw on 65 in-depth interviews with elites and stakeholders as well as congressional archives. Findings show that the MLSBs formulated bills and garnered support from multiple stakeholders. However, infighting over jurisdiction, personalistic leadership, and patrimonialism repeatedly hindered their initiatives. Motivated by Mercosur’s rights-oriented policies and regional bureaucratic networks, Paraguayan and Brazilian MLSBs persevered and learned from their failures, enabling them to leverage critical junctures to help pass new immigration laws with human rights frameworks and when right-wing governments were in power. Broadly, the findings show that MLSBs who cultivate bureaucratic grit can push for immigrant rights within weak institutions.

Author

• Deisy Del Real, University of Southern California