Democratization, Unionism and Neutrality of Bureaucracy: The Case of the Bank of Brazil

Abstract

The idea of bureaucratic neutrality could well be summarized in a set of ideal behavioural attributes of the public service agents in charge of their duties. That is, bureaucratic activity would be characterized by the impartial, confidential, reliable, predictable and non-partisan nature that would result from separating the political and the administrative spheres. However, recent debates about the role of bureaucracy point to the existence of numberless controversies and difficulties with respect to bureaucratic neutrality, all of which seem to derive from the political change process of modern societies (Argyriades supra). In fact, as attractive as it may seem on the outside, bureaucratic neutrality is not consensually given credit as a valid, feasible, useful or even desirable idea (Caiden supra).