In breve
Di fronte a una forza di polizia del traffico notoriamente corrotta, il caos sulle strade e molti morti per traffico, il sindaco di Bogotà Antanas Mockus ha licenziato i poliziotti corrotti e si è offerto di riaddestrarli e reincorporarli… come mimi.
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Teoria chiave
Part of the genius of the mayor’s program was how it leveraged peer pressure to shift Bogotá’s traffic from a culture of impunity to a culture of courtesy rooted in unspoken rules. The mimes set a new tone, but it was when motorists themselves took up the dramatization of these rules — through “thumbs-up/thumbs-down” cards and other devices — that a new sense of right and wrong, “cool” and “uncool,” was established, changing social behaviour across the board.
Principi chiave
Like so many other politicians who get swept into office with a mandate for radical reform, Mockus could have just settled into business as usual. But he didn’t; instead he used his power to do something audacious. He didn’t just “disarm” the traffic police, a wing of the repressive state apparatus he inherited (which would have been a stunning accomplishment in itself), he re-invented it, flipped it on its head. By turning corrupt state agents into gentle, beguiling civil servants, he created a “constructive vacuum” of state power that gave rise to people power. The lesson: The state won’t “wither away” on its own, it must be creatively dismantled in a way that invites civil society to take responsibility for the self-regulation of society. Mockus understood this and took provocative action to move that vision forward.
Unlike the cops, who depend on coercive force, the mimes’ only power was their capacity to scold or induce laughter. Because of their lack of authority and their vulnerability amidst the traffic, the mimes stood on the same level as other citizens, and thus were able to affect them more powerfully. It was precisely this empathic common ground that allowed the mimes to shift the traffic culture of Bogotá.