Brazilian public administration: shaping and being shaped by governance and development

Abstract

This manuscript analyzes the changes in Brazilian public administration and its relation with governance and development trends in the country. The case of the environmental agencies is used to exemplify those changes in the last decades. There are three main modes in the Brazilian public administration: patrimonialism, bureaucratic, and managerial. Even though reforms have taken some effect along the decades, all three modes subsist in different forms in the public organizations. After the democratization of the country, there is a growing influence of civil society in public affairs, but accountability is low. Reforms were carried out by authoritarian and democratic governments from different political spectrums, but the quality of public administration and governance still suffers with components of ineffectiveness in the delivery of public services and patrimonialism, resulting in many recent cases of corruption and mismanagement, as well as the increasing discontent of the population, as shown in the recent protests in Brazil.