Abstract
The paper critically examines “governance” that was seen to be a solution to the social inequality that the authoritarian state-led intense economic development had created during earlier military rule in Brazil. The paper observes that the notion of governance, at least in Brazil, does not express interests emerging from society. Instead, it originates, circulates, and targets the state. Moreover, the term “governance” cannot find meaning in Portuguese, being usually considered synonymous with “government.” Its adoption can be explained by the frequency with which it is invoked to indicate management processes in tune with accepted practices and with dominant representations about contemporary society. It, then, goes on to argue that governance might in fact be an illusion for participatory exclusion of democracy without universal suffrage, where poverty is “managed” by actors from state, non-government organisations, or who are clients/beneficiaries, and they are brought together according to their relevance.
The authors wish to acknowledge the support of Chloé Brault MacKinnon, who translated the text from Portuguese as well as Laís Jabace Maia and Giselle Tanaka for the background research and for reviewing the text, in addition to presenting important suggestions for its completion. Dr Neil Thomlinson of Ryerson University was very generous in offering several suggestions for the text, in view of his knowledge of Brazilian government and politics and his understanding of the challenge of presenting it to the English-speaking public.
Notes
- 1.
Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa da Porto Editora.
- 2.
The Federal Constitution of 1988 institutionalized the idea of social control over public affairs, treating as a precept participation at the local level through organized groups or representative associations. In these terms, the basic unit in participation is not the single citizen, but a collective of individuals. Political decentralization and strengthening of municipal governments were additional marks of the Federal Constitution, counterpoints to the previous centralization of power (Cardoso 1989).
- 3.
According to Cabannes (2004) participative budgeting was formalized in cities like Porto Alegre and Santo André (both governed by the Workers’ Party). Cabannes believes that the first phase of the experience (1989–1997) was experimental, restricted to a few cities. This phase was followed by a massive spread of the Participative Budget (1997–2000). The current period corresponds to the diversification of experiences and its expansion abroad (Cabannes 2004; UNDP 2004).
- 4.
Sector Councils are institutional arrangements, consisting of representatives of the Municipality and civil society, who meet periodically to define plans and to monitor different sectorial policies. The Federal Constitution establishes the existence of Sector Councils.
- 5.
In 2008, according to Langelier (2011), the percentage of government supporters that were pleased with the meeting of their demands was five times higher compared to the supporters of parties of the left.
- 6.
According to Ferreira’s analysis (2000), upon completion of the plan, there was no representative of social organizations on its Directing Board, composed mostly of representatives of private companies and other interests related to large projects for the city (the renovation of the port area was among the projects considered priorities in the City Strategic Plan).
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Novais, P., Vainer, C. (2018). The Problem of Democracy in Two Brazilian Governance Experiences. In: Sekher, M., Parasuraman, S., Kattumuri, R. (eds) Governance and Governed. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5963-6_12
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