Introdução

This paper analyzes the construction of the social assistance policy at the federal level in Brazil over the last two decades. It focuses on the Federal Constitution of 1988 and subsequent infra-constitutional legislation, especially that enacted during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC) and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) administrations, which showed very different conceptions of social policy. For both administrations, we analyze the consequences of the institutional changes and legal framework introduced as well as the social policy ideas that informed them.It is argued that the construction of social assistance in Brazil demanded much more than the constitutional provisions enacted in 1988. It included the entire set of subsequent constitutional legislation, a process in which the ruling party played a critical role. Categories of neo-institutionalism and the method of process tracing, plus in-depth interviews with relevant actors, were employed. Our findings point to the impact of the interaction between institutional structures, like constitutions and policy legacies, and the political projects of governing parties. Constitutional provisions, even if not bound to a policy, can prevent setbacks and anchor the action of pressure groups. They can also allow progressive administration to change the status quo.

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The article analyzes the transformative capacity of the Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger (MDS) in shaping structural change in Brazilian municipalities. The study is based on the concepts of organizational and institutional learning, on a combination of analytical categories of the institutional and neo-institutional approaches and on traditional means of government control. As for methodology, this study used process tracing, in-depth interviews, and documentary analysis of regulations, decrees, and resolutions that create direct and indirect incentives to induce agreements and cooperation of municipalities with the Ministry. We identified two important causal mechanisms: a) organizational and institutional learning processes; and b) inter-federative cooperation that, combined, generated significant changes in municipal bureaucratic capacity. The findings show the importance of the Union’s transformative capacity in the process of public policy decentralization in Brazil.

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As pesquisas empíricas conhecidas mostram-se insuficientes para explicar a variação da capacidade burocrática e de gestão no nível local e suas consequências para a implementação de políticas sociais. Este artigo analisa a percepção de técnicos e gestores municipais da assistência social quanto aos fatores problemáticos na implementação da política. O desenho de pesquisa utiliza-se de grounded theory, pois o intuito é gerar conhecimento sobre o campo, e de um survey, na tentativa de analisar o quanto os achados qualitativos são representativos do todo. Os resultados mostram a centralidade das limitações orçamentárias na implementação da política, mas põem no centro da discussão fatores técnicos e administrativos como os grandes entraves da gestão da política de assistência social no nível local. Os resultados sugerem também o uso de estratégias informais para a solução de problemas dessa natureza.

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