Abstract
As Berry Tholen pointed out in Chapter 3, since ancient times philosophers have been concerned about a tendency for those in powerful positions to use their power for their own benefit. For this account, public servants are in a powerful position. A clerk can make the life of an ordinary citizen miserable just by not processing a required document. Incompetence or a sort of “micro-power” sadism1 may explain such behaviour, but in many of these cases it is explained as the preamble of corruption. In Brazil, a popular saying states that one “creates difficulties in order to sell facilities”. Thus, when public values and virtues fail to dominate the practices within Public Administration, corruption emerges, engulfing public servants in both high and low positions within organizational hierarchies. The socioeconomic, political, historical, and institutional conditions are behind the emergence of corruption in Public Administration. Peter Evans, in his now classical study,2 has argued that these conditions explain “predatory states”, which are so completely privatized that even the most basic public services are “up for sale”.
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Notes
For more on the concept of “micro-power”, see Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish. 2nd ed. New York: Vintage, 1995.
Evans, Peter (1992). The state as problem and solution: Predation, embedded autonomy, and structural change. In: S. Haggard and R.R. Kaufman (eds.), The politics of economic adjustment (pp. 139–181). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Osland, Joyce S. & Bird, Allan (2000). Beyond sophisticated stereotyping: Cultural sensemaking in context. Academy of Management Executive, v. 14, n. 1, p. 65–79.
Nunes, Edson (2003). Gramática política do Brasil: Clientelismo e insulamento burocrático. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Ed. 3rd ed.
Powell, John Duncan, quoted by Nunes, Edson (2003). A gramática política do Brasil: Clientelismo e insulamento burocrático. 3rd ed. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Editor.
For a detailed discussion on this matter, see Méndez, Juan, O’Donnell, Guillermo and Pinheiro, Paulo Sérgio (Eds.) (1999). The (un)rule of law and the unprivileged in Latin America. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
In Brazil, the Federal Internal Revenues Service (Secretaria da Receita Federal—SRF) already uses software to verify incongruence in revenue statements, which must be submitted online. The process starts by filling an offline electronic form (downloaded from the SRF’s website). The form is subsequently sent online to a server at the SRF’s headquarters in Brasília. Public employees must submit a paper copy of the revenue statement (the section listing the assets) to the Human Resources Department. The system it is currently used for is fiscal purposes, but investigations on fiscal matters may lead to corruption charges. For more information on the Brazilian system, see: Vasconcellos, Maria Virgínia & Maria das Graças Rua (2005). Impacts of Internet use on Public Administration: A case study of the Brazilian Tax Administration. The Electronic Journal of e-Government, v. 3, n. 1, p. 49–58. Retrieved December 15, 2009 from www.ejeg.com.
Cunha, Vieira da;quoted by Graham, Lawrence (1968). Civil Service Reform in Brazil: Principles versus Practice. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Andrews, Christina (2010). Da década perdida à reforma gerencial. In: Andrews, Christina & Edison Bariani (2010). Administração Pública no Brasil: Breve História Política. São Paulo: Editora Unifesp.
Rosas, Sabina Morales, Reyes, Marcela Meneses & Félix, Silvia Alonso (2006). Construción de um índice de transparencia para programas sociales. Mexico: Alianza Cívica.
Quoted by Sousa, Fábio da Silva. Clio e Mnemosine: a disputa da história e pela(s) memória(s) da Revolução Mexicana. Outros Tempos, v. 6, n. 7, p. 130–146, 2009.
For more on CCTs in Latin America and elsewhere, see Handa, Sudhanshu & Davis, Benjamin (2006). The experience of Conditional Cash Transfer programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean. Development Policy Review, v. 24, n. 5, p. 513–536 and Rawlings, Laura B. & Rubio, Gloria M. (2005). Evaluating the impact of conditional cash transfer programmes. The World Bank Research Observer, v. 20, n. 1, p. 29–55.
CORDIPLAN, quoted by Guanipa, Ronald Balza (2007). ¿Nueva Administración Pública en Venezuela? A ocho años de la reforma prometida en 1999. Revista sobre Relaciones Industriales Y Laborales, n. 43, p. 9–23.
Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela, Asamblea Nacional. Ley de los Consejo Locales de Planificatión Publica, quoted by Avila, Keymer and Patricia Parra (2007). Visión panorámica de las principales políticas en materia anti-corrupción: caso Venezuela. In: Sal, Sebastián (ed.) (2007). Corruptión in Latinoamérica: diferentes maneras de combatirla. Buenos Aires: Universidad de Buenos Aires, p. 135–156.
Controladoria General de la Republica, Informe de Gestión 2001, quoted by Guanipa, Ronald Balza (2007). ¿Nueva Administración Pública en Venezuela? A ocho años de la reforma prometida en 1999. Revista sobre Relaciones Industriales Y Laborales, n. 43, p. 9–23.
Guanipa, Ronald Balza (2007). ¿Nueva Administración Pública en Venezuela? A ocho aúos de la reforma prometida en 1999. Revista sobre Relaciones Industriales Y Laborales, n. 43, p. 9–23.
Ibid.
For a critical view on focalized programmes in Latin America, see Ziccardi, Alicia (Ed.) (2002). Pobreza, desigualdade social y cidadania: Los limites de las políticas sociales en America Latina. Buenos Aires: CLACSO.
See Hoffmann, Rodolfo (2006). Transferência de renda e redução da desigualdade no Brasil e cinco regiões entre 1997 e 2004. Econômica, v. 8, n. 1, p. 55–81 and Handa, Sudhanshu and Davis, Benjamin (2006), op. cit.
Portella Filho, Petrônio (1994). O ajustamento na América Latina: crítica ao Consenso de Washington. Lua Nova, n. 32, p. 101–131.
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Andrews, C.W. (2011). The Evil and Its Cure: Clientelism, Corruption, and Their Institutional Remedies in Latin America. In: De Vries, M.S., Kim, P.S. (eds) Value and Virtue in Public Administration. IIAS Series: Governance and Public Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230353886_11
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