Corruption in the Durkheimian perspective: a case study of the Operation Car Wash

Abstract In Brazil, Operation Car Wash has been occupying the main news pages as the largest anti-corruption operation ever carried out in the country. The importance of the study lies in the possibility of interpreting and understanding the investigations of the operation, using Durkheimian concepts and reasoning, to analyze the phenomenon focusing not only the concrete case but also looking at the whole public administration. The corruption discovered by Operation Car Wash is a pathological social fact present in the structure of different agencies and institutions. It affects the social order and is fruit of a state of anomie, in which individuals do not adhere to social norms and moral values.