Anticorruption as a Policy Problem: Contested Narratives and Mixed Legacies of Lava Jato

This paper examines Peru’s Lava Jato anticorruption operation as a narrative policy problem, revealing a paradox: while it achieved unprecedented convictions of powerful elites, its legacy remains deeply contested. Building on Mungiu-Pippidi’s (2023) conceptualisation of corruption as an institutional rather than individual failure, I argue that Lava Jato exemplifies an anticorruption paradox—simultaneously successful in holding elites accountable yet criticised as lawfare. Drawing on Deborah Stone (2012), I analyse how competing narratives shaped its outcomes, exposing a crisis of expertise and declining trust in evidence-based anticorruption efforts. Three interlinked factors explain this contradiction: (1) the strategic use of stories in public discourse, (2) the transnational diffusion of anticorruption norms, and (3) resilient policy entrepreneurs sustaining momentum despite backlash. While Lava Jato revealed high-level corruption, it also reinforced public cynicism: a phenomenon amplified by media exposure and Morris’s (2008) “investigation trap” where uncovering graft fuels perceptions of systemic decay. Peru’s weak institutions placed it in Mungiu-Pippidi’s (2015) “norm-building” category, yet prosecutors employed tools suited for “eradication” contexts. This mismatch makes its relative success surprising. Integrating the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) and Policy Diffusion (PD) theories, this paper moves beyond legalistic analyses to explore how discursive struggles and transnational policy transfers shaped Peru’s anticorruption efforts. Empirical evidence (Alencar & Jackson-Green, 2023; Brinks et al., 2020) suggests that this case increased short-term corruption perceptions while yielding only fragile long-term gains. Prosecutorial success hinged on tactical factors (dedicated task forces and weak elite resistance) but masked institutional failures, as corrupt networks adapted rather than dissolved (Da Ros & Gehrke, 2024). Methodologically, the paper draws on 50 elite and experts interviews with prosecutors, officials, scholars, business representatives, journalists, and civil society actors) selected via purposive and snowball sampling, alongside document analysis of media reports, legal records, and OECD/OAS materials. In addition, I also address the ethical considerations and gendered challenges or researching elites in male dominated networks. The Peruvian case mirrors broader worldwide struggles: from Brazil’s backsliding to Guatemala’s CICIG collapse or Italian Mani Pulite, prosecutorial victories cannot substitute for robust anticorruption ecosystems. The Lava Jato legacy thus demands rethinking anticorruption as a contested and context-dependent process where narratives often outweight evidence in this era of democratic backsliding and crisis of expertise.