Research on corruption and organized crime points out the importance of non-state actors in shaping effective anti-corruption initiatives. Amongst other, civil society and social movement actors prove to be particularly interesting, since they engage in collective actions at the micro-level of citizens' political participation to promote deep changes in discourses and practices around corruption. However, empirical research and theoretical reflections on this topic are still rare. The paper presents the preliminary results on a pilot case study: a national campaign against corruption, carried out during the national electoral campaign in 2013 in Italy, a country where corruption is perceived as one of the main problems affecting the lives of individuals and institutions. The campaign, organized by three national social movement organizations, target parliamentary candidates asking them to sign a public document where they agreed on five binding actions to fight against corruption if elected. After a literature review on the role of civil society and social movement actors in enhancing anti-corruption policies, in the first part of the paper we present our case study and methodology: qualitative analysis of documents produced by and interviews with the main promoters of the campaign; quantitative analysis of the policy initiatives and public declarations of the parliamentary candidates who joined the campaign. The second part of the paper first reconstructs the campaign paying attention to the mobilization of resources, the organizational patterns and the repertoire of communication on which the social movement organizations relied to develop their collective action. And then focuses on the outcomes of the campaign in terms of discourses and practices against corruption implemented in the 100 days after the general elections, focusing on the accountability of the elected parliamentary candidates. Conclusions consider the challenges and opportunities of campaigning against corruption during electoral competitions.
