Failing to Mobilize: Prosecutors’ Framing Efforts and Anticorruption Campaigns

Abstract

Social movement scholars have demonstrated that activists can increase mobilizing attitudes by articulating collective action frames. However, these studies have left unresolved whether and under which conditions state officials such as prosecutors can effectively use collective action frames to trigger mobilizing attitudes. This study draws on an experiment in Brazil to test the effect of different components of collective action frames articulated by prosecutors: identity, agency, urgency, and injustice frames that highlight the material or immaterial consequences of the issue. Respondents were randomly assigned to watch videos that simulated a press conference in which prosecutors discussed a corruption investigation and called for public support using different frames. Although social movement studies would lead us to expect framing components to effectively trigger mobilizing attitudes, results revealed that none of the frames consistently and significantly affected willingness to mobilize against corruption or support for bills that strengthen or weaken prosecutors’ anticorruption efforts.