Anti‑Corruption Politics Hollow Governance

When anti‑corruption becomes the central political weapon, it can empower extragovernmental actors (judges, prosecutors, platforms) and turn oversight into spectacle, leaving elected coalitions unable to govern. The Brazil case shows a cycle: leaks and scandal delegitimize institutions, those institutions retaliate publicly, and policy paralysis follows even with stable governing parties. — This reframes anti‑corruption from an unalloyed public good into a political force that can erode state capacity, polarize voters, and produce weak, spectacle‑driven democracy — with implications for elections, policy-making, and institutional design.