Fernando Luiz Abrucio

Trajetória recente da gestão pública brasileira: um balanço crítico e a renovação da agenda de reformas

This article retraces, in broad terms, the trajectory of the Brazilian public administration in the last 20 years. It analyzes the main advances and innovations as well as the mistakes made while conducting the reforms and the management issues that still remain. After assessing a period that covers the New Republic, the Collor era, the Bresser project and the Lula government, the article proposes four strategic axis for modernizing the state, facing the challenges of the 21st century.

Politics and bureaucracy in the Brazilian presidential system: the role of the Ministry of Finance in Fernando Henrique Cardoso's first term

Cet article analyse les differents criteres de selection des ministres et des cadres de la haute fonction publique dans la recente experience democratique au Bresil. En mettant en relief les rapports entre politique et bureaucratie au sein du presidentialisme bresilien, il examine, en particulier, le cas du gouvernement Cardoso (1995-1998) et la selection des hauts fonctionnaires du Ministere des Finances. Le choix de ce ministere se justifie parce quil est un des plus importants dans cette periode de stabilisation monetaire et dajustement fiscal et egalement parce quil est cense etre le plus technique et immune aux pressions politiques.The present paper is aimed at understanding the political appointments for high-level governmental posts in our recent democratic experience. By examining the connections between politics and bureaucracy in the Brazilian presidential system, we focus specifically on the first Cardoso term (1995-1998) and within this, on the case of the Ministry of Finance. The choice of this ministry can be justified due to its high profile in the current hard times of monetary stabilization and fiscal constraints, and because it is deemed to be a mainly technical government department and immune to political interference.

Promessas e resultados da Nova Gestão Pública no Brasil: o caso das organizações sociais de saúde em São Paulo

The new public management (NPM) model has spread through the world with its promise of attacking two bureaucratic evils: an excessive number of procedures and the low accountability of bureaucrats vis-a-vis the political system and society. NPM’s basic proposal was to make public administration more flexible and increase its accountability through a new way of providing services that is based on the creation of public non-governmental entities like social organizations (SO). In Brazil, reformist experience begins in 1995 started with the ideas of the Master Plan for Reforming the Public Administration. In the Health field, the experience in Sao Paulo constitutes a paradigmatic case study for evaluating the introduction of NPM in Brazil. The promise of greater accountability has advanced, but has not yet changed the insulating of the Executive Branch and the reduced capacity of institutional and society for controlling it.

O segundo governo FHC: coalizões, agendas e instituições

O presente artigo analisa os anos FHC, mais detidamente o seu segundo mandato, do ponto de vista do impacto dos condicionantes politicos e institucionais sobre a agenda governamental. Para isso, inicialmente elaboramos um modelo teorico e, por meio deste, estudamos a relacao dos atores e suas estrategias com os temas das reformas constitucionais e da politica economica. Ao final, procuramos avaliar o quanto o presidente Fernando Henrique conseguiu mudar o modelo de Estado e instaurar um novo projeto.

Quando descentralizar é concentrar poder: o papel do governo estadual na experiência catarinense

One of the principal points of the 1988 Brazilian Constitution was the emphasis placed on decentralization. However, there are different forms of implementing the decentralization process. The aim of this article is to describe and analyze the decentralization experience by way of the state government in Santa Catarina, beginning in 2003. As for the methodological procedures, the study is inserted in a qualitative approach of historical-institutional reconstruction, through a case study. For data collection multi-methods were used. Interviews were conducted with actors who were closely involved in the decentralization process. A questionnaire was forwarded to 36 Regional Development Secretariats [RDS] and 24 Development Forums. Documents were also collected through analysis and the observations of researchers at meetings, both of the RDSs and the Development Forums. The phenomenon studied in this work shows how decentralization, contrary to what was expected, can be used as a power concentration mechanism. The reason for this is that, on the one hand, the actions of the government of Santa Catarina are a way of drawing closer to the people, and on the other hand, a party policy strategy to consolidate the power of the current coalition that is dominant in the State.

A cooperação em uma federação heterogênea: o regime de colaboração na educação em seis estados brasileiros

Este artigo analisa a atuacao dos governos estaduais no processo de coordenacao federativa em municipios no campo da educacao. A literatura reforca o crescente papel coordenador do governo federal nas politicas sociais, incluindo na area educacional, porem ha poucos estudos sobre o papel dos estados. Para isso, foram analisadas a cooperacao entre estados e municipios em seis estados: Acre, Ceara, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Para e Sao Paulo. O trabalho foi realizado com base em analise documental e entrevistas semiestruturadas com gestores das secretarias estaduais de educacao, das secretarias municipais de educacao e do Ministerio da Educacao e com atores de organizacoes nao governamentais. A pesquisa empirica mostrou que ha diversos modelos de cooperacao entre estados e municipios, existindo, em apenas um estado, um modelo de coordenacao estadual caracterizado por uma logica mais permanente, institucionalizada e sistemica de atuacao.

Inovação na cooperação intermunicipal no Brasil: a experiência da Federação Catarinense de Municípios (Fecam) na construção de consórcios públicos

Este articulo analiza una experiencia innovadora de cooperacion intermunicipal en Brasil, por medio de la observacion de la actuacion de la Federacao Catarinense de Municipios (Fecam) en el fomento y en la organizacion de consorcios publicos intermunicipales. Investiga el uso de una estrategia singular para afrontar determinados limites al montaje de formas de consorcio en Brasil, entre los cuales la dificultad de los municipios, sin algun estimulo externo, para construir sociedades estables entre si. El punto central del analisis realza la posibilidad de asociaciones municipalistas indujeren la cooperacion de forma mas duradera y con mayor sustentacion tecnica. Con base en el estudio de caso cualitativo, se observo la actuacion de la Fecam como advocacy y como estructura institucional profesionalizada que fomenta la cooperacion entre municipios.

Democracia e eficiência: a difícil relação entre política e economia no debate contemporâneo

Democracy and efficiency: hard relations between politics and economy. Many economists see politics as an irrational activity. They also think state action usually generates market inefficiencies and democratic institutions, such as elections, often work as obstacles to sound economic measures. Showing that vision has been embedded into the main currents of economic thought since the last century, we also argue those ideas are exported to great part of contemporary political science, including the area of public policies. Examining the literature, we show that rational choice political scientists, as the economists, claim governability and effective decisions will be guaranteed mainly through concentrated arenas or through insulated arrangements able to protect policy makers from political interference. In other words, governability depends on the reduction of the political arenas. On the contrary, we reject this technocratic solution of splitting politics from economy. With the support of classical pluralist thinkers, we stand another conception, arguing politics is the privileged social space for building interests and values in an institutionalized way. The difficulties to surpass current international crises since 2008 reveal this is a crucial problem: reducing politics would prevent societies from improving institutional solutions which are the only ones able to give space to emerging conflicts and, then, reach eventual consensus around them.

Quando feds e locals não falam a mesma língua: uma análise sobre dissonâncias na cooperação federativa

The article discusses the problems that may appear in the federative cooperation between the central level and municipalities and generate divergence around offered programs. Empirically, we analyze the National Program of Support to Fiscal and Administrative Management of Brazilian Municipalities (PNAFM) turned to modernize municipal management because it permits to evaluate the contrasting viewings between federal agencies (Department of the Treasury (MF)/Caixa Economica Federal (CEF)) and municipalities. Theoretically, the argument to be discussed is that the existence of contradictory positions between federal agencies offering programs and local governments as recipients may create federative dissonances that result in low performance in terms of adhesion from subnational governments. This is a qualitative (we did interviews and documentary analysis) and quantitative research (we applied a survey in Brazilian municipalities and compiled information of the signed contracts according to reports obtained with the CEF. I was found that the federative dissonance expressed through numbers of municipal adhesion and by the opposed viewings of the feds and locals as the interviews with representatives of MF, CEF and municipalities. In terms of intergovernmental cooperation to promote municipal state capacities the analyzed case evidences as the optimism and capacities of enforcement from federal managers can approach the ambition of goals of a program with the failures of implementation and timidity of reached results.

Innovation in inter-municipal cooperation in Brazil: the experience of Federação Catarinense de Municípios (Fecam) in the construction of public consortia

Este articulo analiza una experiencia innovadora de cooperacion intermunicipal en Brasil, por medio de la observacion de la actuacion de la Federacao Catarinense de Municipios (Fecam) en el fomento y en la organizacion de consorcios publicos intermunicipales. Investiga el uso de una estrategia singular para afrontar determinados limites al montaje de formas de consorcio en Brasil, entre los cuales la dificultad de los municipios, sin algun estimulo externo, para construir sociedades estables entre si. El punto central del analisis realza la posibilidad de asociaciones municipalistas indujeren la cooperacion de forma mas duradera y con mayor sustentacion tecnica. Con base en el estudio de caso cualitativo, se observo la actuacion de la Fecam como advocacy y como estructura institucional profesionalizada que fomenta la cooperacion entre municipios.