The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the strategic role of social care policy to minimize the effects of this health crisis and its consequences on the poorest and most vulnerable population. This article analyzes the perception of street-level bureaucrats in the Brazilian social care network on how the pandemic has affected their performance and professional routine. The research was based on a survey, consultations with representatives of municipal social care services, and analysis of government regulations. The results show that social workers feel unprotected and unable to provide adequate responses to the pandemic’s increasing and urgent demands, revealing a lack of institutional support to act appropriately. The professionals also reported substantial changes in their working dynamics, particularly in their relationship with the attended population, one of the main pillars of the Brazilian social care network. These elements directly affect the provision of social care services and their potential to combat the adverse effects of the crisis.
This paper aims to understand the multiple strategies developed by frontline workers to deal with situations of violence in vulnerable territories. We analyze the micro-dynamics within which workers operate to understand how the State deals with violence. Empirically, we analyzed data from interviews with 140 frontline workers implementing different policies not directly related to violence in neighborhoods located in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, known for their populations’ precariousness and vulnerability. The results expand the understanding of the different ways in which violence expresses itself in these places and show that the reactions developed by frontline workers are more complex than those suggested by the existing literature. The multiple violence to which these workers are exposed is used and manipulated by them in various ways during policy implementation. Frontline workers can ignore, negotiate with, or combat violence. They use their agency to develop different reactions based on how they and the policies are embedded or disconnected to the territories.
A worldwide increase in the number of people and areas affected by disasters has led to more and more approaches that focus on the integration of local knowledge into disaster risk reduction processes. The research at hand shows a method for formalizing this local knowledge via sketch maps in the context of flooding. The Sketch Map Tool enables not only the visualization of this local knowledge and analyses of OpenStreetMap data quality but also the communication of the results of these analyses in an understandable way. Since the tool will be open-source and several analyses are made automatically, the tool also offers a method for local governments in areas where historic data or financial means for flood mitigation are limited. Example analyses for two cities in Brazil show the functionalities of the tool and allow the evaluation of its applicability. Results depict that the fitness-for-purpose analysis of the OpenStreetMap data reveals promising results to identify whether the sketch map approach can be used in a certain area or if citizens might have problems with marking their flood experiences. In this way, an intrinsic quality analysis is incorporated into a participatory mapping approach. Additionally, different paper formats offered for printing enable not only individual mapping but also group mapping. Future work will focus on advancing the automation of all steps of the tool to allow members of local governments without specific technical knowledge to apply the Sketch Map Tool for their own study areas.
Dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic requires that the State make hard decisions that involve the action of bureaucrats who interact with the population through the implementation of public policy, the street-level bureaucracy (SLB). In this paper, based on a mixed- method exploratory study, we analyze how the daily performance of street-level bureaucrats in different policy areas- health and social care, access to the justice system, public security and education - has changed during the pandemic. We also explore the repercussions of those changes. Based on the analysis of the perceptions of bureaucrats, changes in their work and in their relationship with the public, we identify three categories that illustrate the dynamics of SLB work during the pandemic: the SLB who faces the crisis on the front lines; the SLB who suffers the effects of the pandemic, but whose work does not require her to face it directly; and the SLB who began to work remotely. We conclude that, during the pandemic, SLB suffered in varying degrees an aggravation of structural problems, such as their removal from decision-making processes - now restricted to the highest government level - and the exacerbation of already existing conflicts and ambiguities.
The article analyzes the capacity production of a Brazilian urban policy (Program of Acceleration of Growth - Slum Upgrading, PAC-UAP), whose implementation flaws are commonly associated with municipal governments shortcomings, even though its interventions involve a multiplicity of actors. Three analytical and empirical aspects are considered: (i) the need to expand knowledge on state capacity in policies implemented by a network of actors; (ii) the relevance of the debate of policy capacity, which refers to the ability of reaching the expected results in a specific public policy; (iii) and the demand to explore federally induced public policies in federations marked by heterogeneous subnational entities. Methodologically, the work develops a case study, complemented by documental analysis and interviews with key stakeholders. The research corroborates studies that emphasize that municipal problems affected the production capacity of PAC-UAP, particularly the lack of adequate human and financial resources. On the other hand, this study innovates when considering that the municipality is, in fact, the node of a network of actors, whose (in)capacity also affects the implementation. Therefore, it might not be possible to attribute only to the municipality the (in)success of this program. The article also reinforces the importance of incorporating organizational and systemic dimensions as explanatory elements, whose challenges can be potentiated when a program design is not adequate to the intrinsic characteristics of a certain public policy.
Rev. Serv. Público Brasília 69 (3) 529-558 jul/set 2018 Ceder y controlar el poder: estrategias presidenciales en BrasilEste texto examina las estrategias disponibles al Presidente de la República para controlar la delegación de poder en las áreas cedidas a la base aliada, y la coordinación de ministros y de la burocracia en la implementación de políticas públicas. El trabajo empíricoconstituido por un estudio de caso del Ministerio de las Ciudades en los dos gobiernos Lulamostró como demandas por control y coordinación en los gobiernos de coalición se tornan más cruciais en áreas prioritarias. Sin pretender generalizaciones, una análisis de este caso puede contribuir para el aprofundamento de la temática más general relativa a la dinámica de los trabajos del Poder Ejecutivo en Brasil, relativamente poco estudiada.Palabras-clave: poder ejecutivo -Brasil, delegación -control, gobernabilidad, estudio de caso Ceding and controlling power: presidential strategies in BrazilThis text examines the strategies available to the President of the Republic to control the delegation of power in ministries conducted by the government coalition, and to coordinate the action of ministers and bureaucracy in the implementation of government policies. The empirical work -constituted by a case study of the Ministry of Cities in the two Lula governments -showed that demands for control and coordination in coalition governments become more crucial in priority areas. Without intending to generalize, the analysis of this case can contribute to the deepening of the more general theme related to the dynamics of the Executive Power in Brazil, still relatively little studied.
The current debate on state capacity, despite practical relevance for policy-making and analytical advances in the last decades, is still permeated by several theoretical and methodological problems. Considering that a revised concept of policy capacity has analytical utility, this work has contributed to the literature in three interrelated ways. First of all, we work on the concept of state capacity, highlighting its specificities in regard to the generic notion of power. Secondly, this article shows the relevance of bringing contextual and political elements into the debate of capacity. Thirdly, it helps to establish clearer boundaries on this notion, marking its differences to concepts such as resources and results. Empirically, it analyzes policy capacity developments in areas that have expressed priorities in the governmental agenda in former Brazilian presidencies. In the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the focus is on the fiscal function of the state as a guarantor of credibility for investors, having as a case study the National Treasury Secretariat (STN), within the Ministry of Finance. In Lula's and Dilma's terms, the attention is the social area: the National Secretariat of Citizenship Income, within the Ministry of Social Development, and the National Secretariat of Housing, within the Ministry of Cities, both created at the beginning of the government Lula.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
334 Leonard St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.