Public Management in Brazil: Reflections on the Contemporary Organizational Model

Abstract

The formers public management models, such as bureaucracy and new public management, were not fully developed in Brazil, touching canvass in cultural characteristics (authoritarianism, personalism and the colonelism present historically in Brazilian political context). This has led to a new hybrid model in Brazilian public management, a mix of patrimonialism, bureaucracy and managerialism, as well as signs of social management, characterized as an authentic and genuine Brazilian model – despite the Petrobras scandal -, called “tupiniquim public administration”. The purpose of this Book Chapter is to promote a reflection on how it is set up the organizational model of the contemporary public management in Brazil, emphasizing that, in spite of “major reforms” carried out and of the progressive speeches, the focus continues to be the way to control the resources to promote the people quality of life. In a more critical perspective, where the dichotomy between theory and practice has been already overcome, the configuration of the model may bring an awakening of consciences to public managers and servers, as well as society in general, which we would call “emancipation process”, motivating, respectively, the interest for improvements, changes that will make a difference for the better in public management in Brazil, and the monitoring of this management results by society – social control; a reawakening of citizens that will be aware of their duties, rights and responsibilities, by charging transparency in the administration of public goods and the accountability regarding the managers’ acts and the extent of the results.