Originally published in French in Diogenes, the article examines the critical role of bottom-up, grassroots citizen-led initiatives to counter this global scourge. It analyzes the dynamics of two recent successful people power campaigns:
- UK Uncut (or UK UNKUT) has mobilized thousands of citizens to join the fight to reduce tax evasion, which it asserts would ease the need to cut drastically from social services in the United Kingdom. UK Uncut has been lauded for putting the issue of tax justice squarely on the public agenda.
- Avaaz, a global digital resistance platform teamed up with a coalition of civil society organizations called the IF Campaign to nonviolently struggle against financial corruption. Their aim is to curb specifically corruption that deprives Global South countries of revenues that should be used for development. Together, IF Campaign and Avaaz have applied nonviolent pressure which ultimately shifted positions of G8 leaders who were not in favor of taking action on illicit financial flows.
Download a pre-publication version of the article (in English) here.
We invite you to also review a number of related resources below:
- Purchase the final version of the article via SAGE Journals here.
- Order a copy of Beyerle’s book, Curtailing Corruption: People Power for Accountability and Justice (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2014).
- Download for free selected chapters of Curtailing Corruption on ICNC’s Resource Library.
- Download for free Beyerle’s self-study guide Freedom From Corruption: A Curriculum for People Power Movements, Campaigns and Civic Initiatives.