Manoeuvring towards success: reconstruction of the state and its effective campaign countering corruption and state capture

In the period from 2013 to 2017, the Czech Parliament passed five bills against corruption. A civil initiative called Reconstruction of the State was heavily involved in the process. Before the 2013 elections, the initiative prompted the candidates running for an MP mandate to publicly commit to supporting selected legislation proposals. The initiative used a variety of advocacy and campaign tactics to support passing the bills after the elections. This paper uses process tracing to answer the following research questions: (1) What path led to this success?, (2) Is there sufficient evidence about the actual role of the initiative in seeing the proposals passed by the Parliament? and (3) What has determined the initiative’s advocacy decisions? The first research question is treated descriptively, focusing on the key milestones in this historically unique advocacy campaign. To answer the second question, we conducted a non-formal counterfactual assessment of whether the absence of the initiative would have resulted in passing fewer proposals. This is important for evaluating civil society’s potential to effectively influence the political process. Finally, in answering the third question, we show that advocacy tactics have markedly changed throughout the Reconstruction of the State campaign. Building on this observation, we argue that tactics are not only policy- or campaign-specific but also change within a single case.