08.01.2020

Bridging the Elite-Grassroots Divide Among Anticorruption Activists

- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/01/07/bridging-elite-grassroots-divide-among-anticorruption-activists-pub-80687?utm_source=carnegieemail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=announcement&mkt_tok=eyJ… 1/17
Abigail Bellows January 07, 2020
Paper
Bridging the Elite-Grassroots Divide Among
Anticorruption Activists
Summary
Corruption-fueled political change is occurring at a historic rate—but is not necessarily producing the desired systemic reforms. There are many reasons
for this, but one is the dramatic dissipation of public momentum after a transition. In countries like Armenia, the surge in civic participation that generated
2018’s Velvet Revolution largely evaporated after the new government assumed power. That sort of civic demobilization makes it difficult for government
reformers, facing stubbornly entrenched interests, to enact a transformative agenda.
The dynamics in Armenia reflect a trend across the anticorruption landscape, which is also echoed in other sectors. As the field has become more
professionalized, anticorruption nongovernment organizations (NGOs) have developed the legal and technical expertise to serve as excellent
counterparts/watchdogs for government. Yet this strength can also be a hurdle when it comes to building credibility with the everyday people they seek to
represent. The result is a disconnect between elite and grassroots actors, which is problematic at multiple levels:
Technocratic NGOs lack the “people power” to advance their policy recommendations and are exposed to attack as illegitimate or foreign-sponsored.
Grassroots networks struggle to turn protest energy into targeted demands and lasting reform, which can leave citizens frustrated and disillusioned
about democracy itself.
Government reformers lack the sustained popular mandate to deliver on the ambitious agenda they promised, leaving them politically vulnerable to the
next convulsion of public anger at corruption.
Two strategies can help civil society address this challenge. First, organizations can seek to hybridize, with in-house capacities for both policy analysis
and mass mobilization. Alternatively, organizations can build formal or informal coalitions between groups operating at the elite and grassroots levels,