This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A new comparative survey of nearly 150 career civil servants (66 in the U.S. and 82 in Brazil) probed differences in bureaucratic responses to democratic backsliding among 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 nonpartisan 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-efficacy, 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.
Kucinskas et al, Acts of moral courage among civil servants under democratic backsliding: A comparison of the Trump and Bolsonaro administrations, International Review of Administrative Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1177/00208523261477053 BSc Life Sciences & Ecology. Microbiology lab background with pharmaceutical news experience in oil, gas, and renewable industries.
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