(Illustration by Miguel Porlan)
Evan Berman grew up in the Netherlands, studied and worked in the United States, taught in South Korea, and ran academic programs in Taiwan and New Zealand. Work in the last country facilitated his close ties to researchers in Indonesia and Thailand.
Now a professor of public management at Brazil’s Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV/EAESP) in São Paulo, Berman studies how governments can deliver better outcomes for their people. His life across countries has provided a firsthand view of how different democratic governments operate, and the varying degrees to which they effectively serve the public.
In a new paper, Berman joins forces with his Brazilian colleagues to assess the state of public administration in a country overlooked by a field that is largely based in and focused on the United States and Great Britain. And yet Brazil’s 40-year-old democracy, home to 211 million people, is the fourth largest in the world.
“We don’t yet know much about how new democracies are successful, and how they establish themselves over time,” Berman says. “Certainly, people talk about performance such as delivering services, economic growth, and peace, but Brazil tells a story about something else, about inclusion, as well.”
In their paper, Berman and his team note that Brazil enjoys “several islands of excellence” in public enterprises, institutions, and ministries, especially in agriculture and public health, where performance and accountability run high. But beyond this patchwork of “islands,” weak capacity, patronage, and clientelism still persist.
Because most public administration researchers study performance—the shift from policy formulation to policy impact—they have missed an important element in Brazil’s transition to democracy, the researchers argue. Brazil has emphasized social inclusion, with its public administrators working to boost access and participation to improve outcomes, especially for the most disadvantaged.
“After a military regime, people feel locked out and will need to be brought back in,” Berman says. “People want control of their country back, and democracy is that promise.”
Using published studies, the researchers highlight innovations in social inclusion that have bolstered democracy in Brazil, which has a history of military dictatorship, but also colonial rule, the legacies of which continue to shape uneven power relations. The country’s constitution, adopted in 1988, grants far-reaching autonomy and authority to cities and local municipalities to ensure that the central government is kept in check. Historically, Brazilians’ needs were poorly served at the local level, which led the framers of the democratic constitution to write local autonomy into law.
Over time, civil servants have strengthened local authority in ways that bring government closer to people. Municipalities can legislate on matters such as transportation and public housing without state or federal oversight. Public-policy councils (Conselhos de Políticas Públicas) operate at the city and state levels, creating opportunities for ordinary citizens to participate in governance by exercising real power over policy implementation. The councils have improved transparency and accountability, delivering significant gains in areas such as health and public assistance.
The researchers also underscore the role of Bolsa Família, an anti-poverty program that puts money directly in the hands of millions of Brazilians, conditional on school attendance and child vaccinations. By cutting extreme poverty in Brazil by 35 percent, the program, which has evolved since its introduction by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2003, has advanced social inclusion by recognizing the needs of citizens and guaranteeing basic rights to all Brazilians.
“This research shows how specific reforms can make democratic governance more robust,” says Alasdair Roberts, a professor of public policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “Resilient democracies are those in which state and local governments also have robust problem-solving capacities. Decentralization takes the pressure off the center.”
The researchers’ synthesis of literature and data points to another innovation as well: the professionalization of public administration that has accompanied the expansion of public services. Given the absence of a public-management tradition in Brazil, the rapid, large-scale creation of training and education programs for civil servants at every level of government emerged quickly and at scale.
“One reason this article is important is that it places democracy at the top of the agenda for researchers and practitioners in the field of public administration,” Roberts says. “There are a lot of people—including some in the field—who think that the authoritarian alternative, as illustrated by China, may be better suited for these turbulent times. Our priority as scholars in public administration must be to show how democratic governance is not just morally preferable, but also effective and resilient.”
Find the study: “Brazil’s Public Administration and the Challenge of New Democracies: Promoting Social Inclusion” by Evan M. Berman, Eduardo Grin, Gabriela Lotta, Fernando L. Abrucio, Lauro Gonzalez, Maira Gabriela Santos de Souza, Yasmim Marques de Melo, and Jaedson Gomes dos Santos, Public Administration Review, forthcoming.
Read more stories by Daniela Blei.