ISTR 10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE SIENA 10-13 JULY, 2012

The Brazilian non-governmental organizations and their relationship with the state: a promising or interested?

William Melo Jonathan Lopes Rodrigo Nippes

Guilherme Marques Getulio Vargas Foundation - Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration,

Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

Abstract

The article aims to reflect about the historical and managerial processes experienced by

non-governamental organizations, with the aim of understand how occurred the changes

of scenario of the '70s to the present day. Will be also analyzed the changes arising from

the relationship between the state and society during this timeline, highlighting if the

strong relationship and financial dependence between civil society organizations with

the state were promising, or above all interested. The present authors believes that an

analysis of the third sector from this critical view allow a cover of the daily reality of a

significant number of organizations and institutions - nongovernmental organizations

(NGOs), non-profit, charities institutions, corporate citizens, among others - and

individual subjects - voluntary or not (LANDIM, 1999), which in some sense are being

somehow affected by the major changes resulted from the continuous process of

modernization of the public management and by the stronger presence of the third

sector in the Brazilian social reality.

Keywords: Third-Sector; State; Non-governmental organizations.

Introduction

A few years ago, in the 1990’s, a very important topic has been calling attention

in Brazil: the third sector. Present in the sociopolitical and academic-scientific scenario

in the recent years, this topic principally emphasizes the reorganization of the three

levels that characterize the Western world: the state, society and market.

Among other topics also new, like the State reform, the new social movements,

the expansion of the democracy and non-governmental organizations (GOHN, 2004),

the third sector has emerged as a leading actor in the 1990s occupying a position on the

threshold between the public and private. Is characterized then by provide public

services despite not been the state and been situated in the private sphere of society

although without the lucrative purposes typical of the market.

There are several factors that have contributed to the emergence of this

phenomenon. Among them is the triumph of neoliberalism, the disbelief in the socialist

alternatives, the globalization and the major technological changes. In Europe there is

the crisis of the welfare state, in Brazil the crisis of the developmental state, and in a

global context, the advent of globalization - in parallel with this phenomenon, arise the

emergence of the "Age of Information and Knowledge" - the crisis of the great

ideological paradigms (causing the collapse of the polarization between socialism and

capitalism), the rise (and fall) of the "neoliberal agenda", which among other things

have been advocating the "downsizing" of the state (DOIMO, 1994).

The term ‘third sector’ was firstly used in the United States in the mid-1970s,

and was also used by European researchers from the 1980s. This term expresses

elements that denote the idea of an alternative to the disadvantages of the market

(characterized by the profit maximization) and, on the other hand, an alternative to the

state (with its inoperative bureaucracy). Therefore, the third sector combines the

flexibility and efficiency of the market with the predictability of the public bureaucracy

(COELHO, 2002, 58).

Thus, according to Coelho, the third sector would define a certain group of

organizations belonging to civil society and with specific and unique features. In Brazil

however that name would be just one more to a entanglement of similar terms that

currently exist - nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations, voluntary organizations,

civil society organizations in the public interest, etc. In practice, such mixture of terms

used indiscriminately generates an infinite range of classifications that are able to hide

ideological tensions between different fields of activists and also confuse the scholars

(COELHO, 2002, 57).

In Brazil non-governmental organizations have reinvented the civil society.

However, its participation in the public sphere during the decades of 1970-1980 did not

corresponded a real emergence of a third sector as a emergence of a new sector, but just

a body of supporting organizations that contributed to other social movements, trade

unions and Catholic Church. The transformation into a third sector would have only

coming, as in other countries, during the implementation of neoliberalism and the

consequent downsizing of the state. This transition was not without costs. Linked to

political issues and the fight against the authoritarian state, the NGOs of the decades of

1970-80 had a strong identity linked to political activism. In the 1990s, this identity is

lost with the partnership between NGOs, state and sometimes also with companies large

capital. To ensure their survival, the third sector guided itself on isolated and concerned

actions. Thus, is created a challenge to the identity os this new sector that was not

market nor state, but that worked for both, moving away from civil society.

The challenge has become even more complex when considering the vices of the

Brazilian political tradition that starts to permeate the third sector. Patrimonialism and

clientelism complement the social relations between this new sector with the market and

the state. Recently, this relationship is to be questioned as well as the credibility of these

organizations. For this reason, we will be dedicated to understand the transition between

two different phases in the form of association of the civil society and non-

governmental organizations, understood as two types: 1) NGO activists and 2) NGOs

from the third sector. Over the last one we propose still understand its operation and the

challenges facing the Brazilian political culture with the objective of find the identity -

or the identities - of these organizations now a days.

In order to implement the execution of this objective, was made an investigation

in bibliographical references specific about the study of the third sector, combined with

classic studies of political culture. Thus, in first moment will be performed the effort to

conceptualize the third sector and then turn our attention to the specific case of Brazil,

understanding the path taken by non-governmental organizations that emerged in the

1970s due to restrictions imposed by the military regime against traditional associations

like trade unions and political parties, until the change for the third sector in the midst of

implementation of neoliberalism. Traditional relations are combined with those of state

reform and create new challenges to the third sector and, for the reason, situate our last

moment of bibliographical research, identifying the trend of the third sector in Brazil. In

the end some conclusions will be presented.

Third sector: a conceptualization

It is not unusual in the literature about the third sector to find certain cloudiness

around the concept due to the poor conceptual precision. This explains because

"education and research on management describes the characteristics and prescribes

procedures for capitalist business organizations and corporate bureaucracies of public

bodies” (FISHER; FALCONER, 1998, 1). Sociology, on the other hand, did not seek to

understand the organizational arrangements, focusing its studies on the reasons for the

associativism. The concept becomes even more complex inasmuch in that participate

the foundations created by large organizations around the called socio-environmental

responsibility. We observe, therefore, an expansion of activities that call themselves

around this terminology, without the proper time to develop a more accurated concept.

It is only possible a conceptual effort in search of theoretical approaches which

illuminate the scientific analysis, the existence of a third sector as a component of

analysis is limited to an ideal type.

Another author of great importance in the literature on third sector, Rifkin (apud

IOSCHPE, 1997) emphasizes the importance of identity in this field for the political

action. This action has fundamental importance to the sector’s consolidation. The

political action is able to influence the reform of the regulatory legislation and establish

partnerships on more solid foundations. The importance of the third sector is not only as

a possible way to satisfy the social need, but also from an economic point of view – the

generation of jobs.

Let’s see what think Rifkin about the fact of not having a solid identity built:

The problem of the Third Sector [Brazil] is the lack of awareness of their own condition. There’s a lack of identity. Without identity there is no power. Without power there is no way to the third sector handle the market and the government on equal terms, and until that happens, the third sector can not begin to deal with the problems that civil society face in their respective countries. (RIFKIN apud IOSCHPE, 1997, 123)

When the term "nongovernmental organization" is used by researchers and

activists they are actually referring to just a part or subset of these entities, namely those

most modern directed to defense of citizenship. The sector however is broader, with a

multitude of associations and foundations that are under the wings of the same

regulation, having the same basic features: nonprofit and based in the collective good.

Among the approaches we consider the ideas of Ruben Cesar Fernandes (1994)

one of the most accurate1, as he mention the emergence of a different sector of the state

and market, until now traditional actors of the Western political scene, which he called

third sector:

That this term denotes a range of organizations and private initiatives aimed at producing public goods and services, and that the actions denominated by these organizations would be carried out by individuals, groups and institutions that have the aim to fulfill collective needs" (FERNANDES, 1994, 21-22).

According to this author, the third sector: a) is opposed to government actions

(emphasizes the idea that public goods and services not only result from a state action,

but also from the tremendous proliferation of private initiatives), b) makes a

counterpoint to the market actions (put for all individuals and companies the question of

its direct and transferable participation in the production - or destruction - of goods and

services of common interest), c) lends greater meaning to the elements that compose it

(changes the terms of the central opposition in the previous period – State vs Market-

emphasizing the value of the political and economic voluntary and nonprofit actions), d)

project an integrated view of public life (called third sector because exist a first and

second sectors. Therefore, emphasizes the complementarity that exists - or should exist

- between public and private actions, showing that without the state the actions of the

third sector would succumb in anarchy).

Another important author is Oliveira (1996), who explains the difficulties in

conceptualizing by denial:

The characterization of the NGOs as "nongovernmental" reveals the difficulties the State to learn the true nature of a phenomenon that has its roots in "another place" that’s not belong to the State sphere, with a original history, values and ways of acting. No one would take place to define a citizen as one who is not government. Similarly, no

1 Another very informative characterization of the social movements and NGO's is from the Professor Mary Kaldor (London School of Economics), which characterizes such movements as rejectionists (who reject the actual system and are against the globalization, do not wanting a reform but a revolution), the reformists (that instead of rejecting the globalization, prefer to make it work for the poor), while the regressive want globalization to benefit a few (like George W. Bush in favor of the rich or an Osama bin Laden in favor of the Muslims). Available in www.lse.ac.uk <acessed in 18/04/2005>.

one would say that the functioning of citizenship is not from State. Significantly, the United States, society in which the State has never been perceived as a reference structuring of the social life, organizations of citizens are defined by another term: "nonprofit". Interestingly, persist the notion of a definition by the negative, although here the differentiating reference is the world of the private organizations operating in the market looking for profit" (OLIVEIRA, 1997, 10).

Some authors, like Dimenstein (1998) for example, assume that the actions of

the third sector should looking for profit, but this profit must be reapplied in the

organization, giving to it a modern and self-management character. In his opinion the

third sector is defined as:

The set of activities of civil society organizations, in other words, the organizations created by private citizens in order to provide service to the public, is accustomed to say that do not look profit, although it is better to define them as organizations which potential profit could be reapplied to maintain their activities or distributed among its collaborators. (DIMENSTEIN, 1998, 82).

Another definition of great value is from Salamon (apud FERNANDES, 1994),

in order to make it even clearer about what has become the third sector. The author also

conjugates the idea that the profit measured should be not distributed to shareholders as

a normal company (because in this way would lose its "character" of ‘public and not

private’), however, it is not clear if an organization of the third sector can be able to

generate profit. The main characteristics of the organizations that constitute the sector

for this author are:

(a) structured organizations; (b) outside of the formal apparatus of the state; (c) not designed to distribute profits between its directors or between a group of shareholders; (d) self-governing; (e) involving individuals in a significant volunteer effort. (SALAMON apud FERNANDES, 1994, 19).

The characterization of Salamon, however, does not eliminate the ambiguities of

the definition of this new actor in the context of reform and minimizing the range of the

State.

What occurs in reality is that all the terms that have been used until now for a

universe of social organizations are vague and imprecise. This multitude of names

shows a lack of conceptual precision, revealing the difficulty of fitting all the diversity

of organisms and "projects" in the same social common parameter. However, the

category is becoming more widespread and admirable, showing a progressive growth of

actions and projects that are recognized through it.

By this analyse is possible attest to the truth of the idea that said the third sector

is a group shaped by non-governmental, non-profit and non-religious organizations that

work for public interest. In this way we can do the following question: Is there a sense

of identity in this group of organization? Let’s see the Brazilian case.

The resistent emergence: non-governmental organizations in the struggle against

the military regime

In Brazil, the beginning of the third sector started in the military period, between

1964 and 1984. Just strengthens, however, in the 1990s, with a very different character,

though inherit of the type of civil society organization formed during the previous

decades.

Thinking about the Latin American political context, is possible realize the

existence of common military dictatorships in countries like Chile, Brazil and

Argentina. In this context, civil society organizations would be organized on issues

related to the promotion of citizenship and democratization, counting with the financial

support from international organizations that combine efforts in a network of

government agencies, churches (catholic and protestant) and non-governmental bodies.

Resources are agglutinated from non-governmental cooperation funds that had focused

on the organization of social movements and the objective of consolidating democracy.

The resources mobilized were forwarded to the centers and institutes of popular

education. In this sense, it is highlighted the "pedagogy of autonomy"2 of Paulo Freire

(1996). This marks an important change in the goals of social organizations that

gradually leaves welfare and philanthropic practices to give way to actions of political

mobilization (COUTINHO, 2004). These centers have become real poles of resistance

to military rule, based on international finance, serving in the training of the popular

2 Proposals for pedagogical practices of education necessary as a way of building the autonomy of learners, valuing and respecting their culture and collection of empirical knowledge along to their individuality.

leadership and in the assistance of popular organizations in a moment in which the

traditional organization of civil society was been restrained.

The actions were concentrated in enabling the emergence of a new social base connected to the popular classes through participation in trade unions, neighborhood, church and the new social movements that will bring together social groups from the ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, ecology etc. A sense of citizenship expands including other dimensions of social relations and shifting the center of resistance to the authoritarianism of classical relationship between capital and labor. (STEIL; CARVALHO, 2001, 1)

In addition with the "pedagogy of autonomy" is also important to mention the

strong performance of the progressive groups of the Catholic Church that had concrete

actions based in the Basic Ecclesial Communities3 (BEC) and in the ideology of the

“Liberation Theology”4. Based on the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas and on the idea

of freedom and rebellion against tiranny, the Liberation Theology puts the “man” as the

subject of the history. The participation of the church comes in response to the

authoritarianism of the state that reaches important and traditional sectors of the Church,

like the Catholic University Youth (CUY) in Brazil.

The emergence of non-governmental organizations in Brazil merges temporally

and even ideologically with the emergence of non-governmental organizations around

the Latin America, based on transforming education and support actions for secular

groups such as syndicates, neighborhood associations, social and ecclesiastical

movements linked to the progressive groups of the Catholic Church, as the BEC. In this

way, the third sector in Brazil had a political identity focused in the fight against the

military dictatorship. We also can say that the emergence of new civil society

organizations during the military period arises as an unplanned and even unwanted

effect by the power holders.

3 Groups mainly linked to the Catholic Church and encouraged by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Composed primarily by members of the popular classes with the objective of establish Bible reading in conjunction with real life. Through the method see-judge-act, this movement sought to look reality in which they live (SEE), judge it with the eyes of faith (JUDGE) and find ways of action driven by the same judge in the light of faith (ACT). During the struggle against military dictatorship gave a great contribution to the democratization of Brazil, but with the decline of Liberation Theology the Christian Base Communities lost space in the Catholic movement. 4 It is a Christian movement of political theology, which includes several schools of thought that interpret the teachings of Jesus Christ. It is described by its proponents as an interpretation of Christian faith through the suffering of the poor. It is also used as a critique of society, the Catholic faith and Christianity through the eyes of the poor, sometimes described as Marxism Christianized.

The authoritarian political regime established in Brazil after the military coup of 1964 contributed, while not deliberately, to search for alternatives by the civil society, encouraging the pursuit of organized actions, such as neighborhood associations, which were important in the formation of a culture favorable to the emergence of NGOs in the current configuration, which occurred in the 1980s. (TORO, 2000; WOLFE, 1992 apud VERGARA, 3)

The end of the military dictatorship, therefore, did not mean the end of this

movement around the citizenship, but a continuation and even expansion of ideological

banners. The return of exiles and with them the introduction of new ideas into the

political scene has resulted in a important organizational formation that is self-defined

as NGOs, due to need of raise funds from international organizations that saw NGOs in

a positive way, but not necessarily with a spontaneous recognition as part of a group,

though retained commom features (FISCHER; FALCONER, 1998).

During the 1980s the experiences acquired by the local resists against the

dictatorship were combined with the political and militant experience of those who were

exiled. In ideological terms are grouped on one side the pedagogical practice of

autonomy and expectation of freedom and social justice, and by the other side, the

renewals of Marxist thoughts in the face of a critical vision about the real socialism,

having as conviction the political perspective of the democracy coming from militant

exiles. This view adopted by non-governmental organizations had a focus on

democratic radicalism, with the acceleration of processes of political participation

(STEIL, CARVALHO, 2001).

In Brazil during the 70-80 years, the NGO activists were behind of majority urban popular social movements that generated a scenario of large participation of civil society, bringing to the public scene new figures, contributing decisively to the fall of the military regime and for the democratic transition in the country. They contributed to the reconstruction of the concept of 'civil society' and for the innovation of the social struggles, signing, as individuals with rights, categories until then forgotten, creating a new ethic-political and cultural field through collective actions developed in alternative spaces of expression of citizenship (GOHN, 2004, 147).

The importance of NGOs in that period, entitled NGO activists, is crucial in the

implementation of an innovative political culture that had in the popular participation its

main battle flag. Throught the social practices similar to political social movements5 and

5 "Rooting in society, mystical participation stimulated by emblematic icons (like the cross), criticism and rebellion, organizational discipline, forms of social struggle that prioritized the spaces in civil society,

in conjuction with these same moviments, the NGOs have become able to build a

culture of citizenship. The NGOs brought in their actions a new ideology that went

against to the tradition of the centralizing state, with its authoritarian character and with

patrimonial and clientelistic vices (GOHN, 2004).

The dilemma faced in the post-dictatorship was due to the inclusion of NGOs in

the political process of the State, in other words, the participation of these organizations

in the decision making of social policies. It’s because of the established tradition of

combat by the NGOs against the government actions from the authoritarian State of the

previous period. It is undeniable the role of the NGOs in the restructuring of the

Brazilian democratic process, as in the incorporation of diffuse themes such as gender

and ethnicity or the implementation of institutional mechanisms to ensure direct

participation. In this sense we can point the Federal Constitution of 1988 as a mark of

the strategic change in the activity of the NGOs.

The constitutional process and the promulgation of the new Brazilian Constitution in 1988 represented a divinding line, the great moment of inflection and break with tradition until then predominant: be against the State. A new concept of participation began its construction, combining the direct democracy with the representative democracy. It was part of a new political moment that was the definition and implementation of state and local laws, the construction of different councils and chambers of interlocution between State and society. (GOHN, 2004, 148)

Although the inflection state and NGOs can be observed in the period of

democratization, is important to mention that these organizations have conserved its

administrative autonomy with relation to the State and face the international

organizations funders.

The NGOs also differed from the social philanthropic organizations, exhausting

its actions on welfare efforts while the non-governmental organizations were aimed at

actions that would lead to political awareness and promotion of citizenship (ABREU;

DYSMAN; CALDAS, 2009).

When we talk about non-governmental organizations, although they only have

adopted this term in the 1980s, we can argue about the militant political organizations

that had democracy as an objective, which added to the expansion of citizenship rights,

provided a strong trace of identity. These organizations were financed by international

little relationship and dialogue with institutionalized public institutions, and the recurrent use of practices of civil disobedience, or practices not limited to the legality established” (GOHN, 2004, 147)”.

funds since there’s no established relationship with the State, because of the fight

against him. In face of the new democratic times, these organizations have come to

exert an important role in the mproving of the social democracy and social policy

management. This participating along with social movements contributed to the

construction of a new political culture.

The decade of change: the emergence of the Brazilian Third Sector

The movement of expansion of the NGO will not be accompanied by ideas of

70-80 years, but by the need of resources. Thus, the groups structured around themes

like democratization and social justice in the 1990s, together with its needs of

reproduction, started the competition for funding in a situation in which the

international organizations transfer much of attention to areas “that have problems of

social inequalities and political imbalances" (FISCHER, FALCONER, 1998, 5), making

acess to resources increasingly scarce. That’s the moment of approximation between

state and NGOs and the start of a relationship of greater affinity. Gradually, the

ideological character that gave identity to the Brazilian non-governmental organizations

gives way to the specific actions and targeted for assistance to social services.

This approximation is not accidental. In Brazil the neoliberal period began and

with it the consequent downsizing of the state, including in social sectors. Therefore, the

NGOs has pleayed a instrumental role in helping to manage social services, understood

as part of the privatization of activities that traditionally belong to the state.

The participation of major capital will also boost the expansion of the NGOs.

Entities like the World Bank, Ford Foundation, Kellogg's and others will drive robust

funding to private entities with public purposes, arguing to have had negative

experiences with actions managed by the state, giving ideological support to the

privatization of public services. The NGOs combined practice together neoliberal

ideology, moving away from the militant identity that characterized the previous period,

assuming the title of the Third Sector.

The crucial point that determined the change in the predominant type of associations in the 1990s, the crisis of identity and review of the field of NGO activists was the emergence and/or reorganization of associative networks – like the new NGOs of the 'third sector' (that do not want to be called or confused with the old NGOs; simply calling themselves as the Third Sector) - and changes in social policies of national

states, resulting from the implementation of a new development model, of desconcentration of various state activities in the social area, leading to deactivation of direct action and transfer the operation of various services to the private nonprofit (GOHN, 2004, 148).

Points like the administrative autonomy are gradually replaced by the need to

adapt to the emerging financing market of public social services. The change is evident

not only in the action profile of NGOs, now part of the Third Sector, but also in the

political and social origins, putting aside the idealist militant and and giving place to the

entrepreneurs and economic groups that seeks for social marketing and/or

environmental, from concepts related to corporate responsibility. Also changed were the

forms of management.

Made up by organizations/companies that operate in the area of social citizenship, the third sector incorporates criteria of market economy of capitalism in the search for quality and effectiveness in its action, acts based on marketing strategies and uses the media to publicize their actions and develop a culture favorable to voluntary work in these projects. Use the rational and empirical instruments, oriented to the achievement of immediate objectives (GOHN, 2004, 149).

Therefore, the Brazilian third sector is composed by a new type of organizations.

These changes happened through legislation and discussions initiated in 1995 in what

was called the Brazilian public management reform. Thus, as can be seen in the

trajectory of NGOs, the environment of the third sector contributes to the weakening of

spontaneous movements and in some ways, allowed the private companies, many large,

and mainly, the state institutions to make the NGOs hostages of proposals funding that

would allow its reproduction, fading the remnants of the ideology that once drove the

actions and positions taken by these organizations.

The perverse effect of this loss of identity was the cumplicity with immoral and

vestes interests, both in relation to the private and to public sectors. The institutions that

once served as examples of social control against to corporativist and public attitudes

have come to depend financially of actors who previously criticized. From autonomous

became dependent, from critical became conformist.

This scenario has become even more institutionalized with the perspective of

management reform in Brazil, inspired by the New Zeland and executed by the then

minister of state reform Luis Carlos Bresser-Pereira Goncalves in the first presidential

term of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, which aimed to provide the institutions belonging

to the third sector sphere a role very convenient to the interests of a managerial and

unconcerned a state with social issues in Brazil. Given the importance of these changes

that began in 1995 entitled Reform of the Brazilian Public Management, will be

dedicated some considerations about this process.

Public management reform in Brazil: the interested relationship

The first feature that attracts attention with respect to this paradigm shift in the

model of the Brazilian public management that occurs from the management reform is

the strange return to the false idea of administrative neutrality of public affairs, as if

decisions and actions concerning to the public policies does not involved issues of

political character in the beginning of its implementation, as well observed by Wright

(1994):

[...] A general change of paradigm, with a strong ideological bias against the state, big government, bloated bureaucracies, universalistic solutions. In terms of administration, the paradigm has been fueled not only by economic thinking oriented to the market, in the Chicago style, but also by theories of public choice (with their simplistic notions of bureaucratic behavior), by the principal-agent theory, by the new theories of property rights and by the economic analysis on the failure of the public sector (WRIGHT, 1994, 105).

In the conceptual model advocated by the planners of the management reform in

Brazil, and in particular to Bresser-Pereira, the reform of public administration means

essentially the transition of the institutional, cultural and bureaucratic management of

public administration for a modern public management. In theory, this would involve

the modification of institutions, particularly the state organization, the administrative

culture and the management strategies. Its conception, recognized as imported from the

management private practices. But, unlike the private companies, the NGOs would

continue to keep a strincly public and political character. And finally, the adoption of its

strategic basic: make the public agencies and its managers more autonomous and

responsible, exercising control through results hired and the competition managed by

excellence, rather than procedural control and more direct supervision (BRESSER-

PEREIRA, 2009). This entire scenario has been strengthened by such measures as:

1. Descentralization of the powers and resources for regulatory and executive agencies

which would play state activities;

2. Outsourcing of commercial companies to activities of support or ancillary services

that do not involve neither the power of the state (and are conducted by agencies) or

basic human rights (to be provided by social organizations);

3. Accountability of agencies and social organizations through the control results

employed, administrative competition for excellence and social control, which

involves high transparency rather than traditional bureaucratic controls (procedural

norms, audit and parliamentary review);

4. The strengthening of the public service, limited to play exclusive state activities;

5. Requirement for technical expertise to public servants and also reasonable

autonomy of decision, and political capacity;

6. Establishment of an incentive system involving differentials in the pay, transparent

assessment of performance and real opportunities for training and career

development;

7. Adoption of Internet technology to conduct audits, purchasing, payments and all

kinds of official records;

8. Contracting of public non-state organizations of service (known as "social

organizations"), social and scientific services that the society decide to finance with

funds from the state by they involvement of high externalities and basic human

rights;

9. Differentiated recruitment of personnel from agencies and from social

organizations: while the agencies have public servants, social organizations have

private employees. (BRESSER-PEREIRA, 2009, 266).

In summary, the Brazilian public administration reform and its main axes

exposed above, which were started in 1995, still have aspects resonant today. The

Brazilian federal system seems to exalt states and municipalities that incorporate

management tools seen above6.

In general, much of the administrative body that runs and controls the

government, seems to believe that such administrative and technical knowledge alone

will bring improvements in areas that adopt them. The logic of government seems to

6 To prove the statement made in the text, just watch the exaltation performed in academic circles by

some scholars on the subject and also by politicians on programs such as: Shock Management (started in the government of Aecio Neves and continued by the governor Antonio Anastasia) and more contemporaneously the National Program of Modernization of the Management (Pnage), that is a model policy to be followed by states and municipalities of the Brazilian federation.

turn to a mathematical reason, where the policy variable is concealed as a minor action,

the pragmatic character of these concepts and techniques from this new moment is

because the Brazilian public sphere seems to difficult much of scholars and managers

on the subject, leading them to a logic of goals and objectives often detached from

reality and genesis of the Brazilian public administration.

The pillar of reform, by emphasizing too much the conceptions and models of

private management, neglected and still neglects the differences between state and

private sphere. Even if there is a “mea culpa” by part of its ideologues about this

fundamental difference (the state sphere must serve a commom good interest, while the

private sphere serves the constant search for profit from concepts as: surplus value,

accumulation, unemployment, etc.), there is no presentation in the normative

frameworks and studies on the subject that gives a solution or appropriate exit to

remedy or to provide to the model advocated an adequate answer to satisfy the

particular interests in the public administration and their respective actions.

Thus, the reform of the public administration is imagined with conceptions of a

private model. Its inconsistency begins at the time of his birth, which demonstrates that

the intended actions do not escape the unfortunate and recurring logic that the Brazilian

government is invariably captured by the private and ideology sphere, being

orchestrated by a Brazilian intelligentsia that uses the devices of a "conservative

modernization" with robes of inclusive action (COUTINHO, 1986; JUNIOR MOORE,

1975).

If there is something new in this reform of public administration, which once

seems to present itself with a new facet of the recurrent "conservative modernization"

that has for a long time slaughtering the Brazilian sociopolitical scenario, is that the

institutions of the third sector in this time are situated in the political game as a

protagonist. This news caught off guard institutions from this sector and many scholars

on this subject (CUNILL GRAU, 1996; OLIVEIRA, 1996; MODESTO, 1997). In the

case of institutions, to assimilate this insertion in the new political context, they

automatically pass to incorporate the new model of relationship with the government,

setting new standards, methodologies and action plans, which leads them to present

themselves from a new name that briefly summarizes the new approach to be adopted in

relation to public funding; the generic name of NGOs come to be known and

legitimized by the public, such as "social organizations"(BRESSER-PEREIRA, 2009,

1998).

[...] the term "social organization" [means] originally an organizational institution specifically from Brazil, I think we should define as social organizations all public non-state organizations of service or non-profit organizations of social and scientific service financed by the state, and that are responsible not only to society but also to the administration. (BRESSER-PEREIRA, 2009, 323).

From the reform model analyzed here, the kind of institutions called of "social

organizations" now starts to have a central role in the provision of social and scientific

services that were previously provided directly by the state. In the moment they obtain a

new importance in relation to the government, the institutions of the third sector are to

incorporate public services from the state in their planning. In this way, they become

part of the state budget, but not included between the components of the state apparatus,

don’t employing public servants.

This new procedure adopted and exalted by the reform presents as justify the

flexibility of the social organizations for the provision of social and scientific services,

arguing that such measure aims ensure the efficiency of the services. The model

exercised by public servants, on the other hand, would present deficiencies not found

when exercised from the private model of contracting used by social organizations. The

strong defense exposed to the protagonist adoption of social organizations in relation to

social and educational issues of the state has like mantra the always present chant from

the defenders of the public administration reform: “[…] the pressure to reform the state

and make it more efficient and oriented to the citizen paved the way for the provision of

social and scientific services by public non-state organizations" (BRESSER-PEREIRA,

2009, 320).

The fact is that the model adopted carries a defense to the underlying concepts of

a minimal state that definitely has proved inefficient and leads to profound ills to

society's development. The reform model exalted, in the stablishment of a responsibility

of the third sector or of the called “social organizations” in the promotion and

management of essential services in the social and educational spheres. Thus, the

incorporation of a private logic to basic social rights and responsibility of the state

capital moves away very strongly from the objectives established on the Brazilian

Federal Constitution.

Another factor that supports the criticism made here to the model occurs at the

time of establishment of partnerships between the public and their representatives and

the managers of these "social organizations". Given the strong competition to set

partnerships with the government, begins to appear many organizations that are actually

more aligned with the interests of some public managers and potential allies rather than

to provide some type of service or social care/education to society. It is the starts of a

network of institutions of social welfare and education that are actually interested in the

budget allocations derived from the provision of these types of services, which end up

generate corruption scandals, embezzlement of public money, gang formation,

administrative misconduct and so on.

The race for resources and the new environment that embraces the social sector

simultaneously transforms these both factors in potential tools to illegal practices by

corrupt agents. In this scenario, the NGOs are to be observed by the public opinion as

disacredited institutions, destroying all their history of struggle and ideologies, which

consequently ends up damaging the public that in general may be being correctly

attended by one or other institution that has not adhered to this kind of illegal practice.

In summary, the process of effectuation of "social organizations" is, in true, a big

farce. First, because it actually does not allow the improvement of services as the main

defenders of reform advocates, on the contrary, gives incentives to the birth of illegal

practices and overvaluation of public resources7. Second, because it goes to establish

systems of laborite intensification to employees, who actually work with intangible

values such as emancipation, self-esteem, better quality of life, etc. And finally, by

considering that social issues are in fact a matter that can be resolved from private

practices and tools. In other words, the advocating of practices explained above only

serves to desmobilize politically a sector that showed an enormous critical potential,

making it serves the interests of private actors who are in favor of establish agreements

supported with public funds.

The Brazilian hybrid model: the traditional and new managerialism as challenges

to the third sector

7 To prove of this assertive in the text, just look at the increase of complaints and scandals in the investigations by the media about the third-sector institutions in the establishment of some kind of shady relationship with the government then constituted. Especially when we look at the increased rate of institutions surveyed from the late '90s, when the model of public administration reform result in a management standard to be adopted across the federation.

As we seek to call attention throughout this article, the new guidelines for

management together with a demand for increased participation impose to the

government a new rationality, with the parameter "of a progressive control from

society" (TATAGIBA, 2003, 49). It is emphasized that the challenge will be in how

these new guidelines coexist with standards that historically guided the relations

between public and private sectors in Brazil, once the transition to a participatory

political culture is not carry out without contradictions and ambiguities. Thus how this

innovative process coexists, incorporates, has, and re-elaborates the traditional, the

conventional?

How a political tradition that simply despises a sharper separation between

public and private lives or will live for years with a new management model and more

than that, how far this new management model will incorporate these elements rooted in

our traditions? According to Ruben Cesar Fernandes (1994), is evident the informality

in Latin America which makes complex the involving of a third sector that should be

composed for entities of the kind “legal-rational”. The field of informal, in which it is

much of the decision spaces in Brazil, is characterized by little differentiation between

public and private and can find fertile ground in third sector that is at the same time

between state and market.

The political uses, as the practice of personal favors through these organizations

and even commercial from the advertising around the social and environmental

responsibility have become common in the Brazilian political scene. Is evident a

disregard between the public and private fields in Brazil. Also notable is the fact of the

Brazilian culture ignores the plurality and the autonomy and is also strongly marked by

a tradition/culture of low participation in the formulation and management of public

policies, prevailing the called top-down model, the public policies developed “from top

to bottom”, from state to society, instead of the state in conjuction with the society.

Some classic works of analysis about the formation process of the Brazilian

political system, inspired by Weber's analysis of patrimonialism8, exemplifies the

8 We refer here to the patrimonialism in the Weber’s sense and that in Brazil has gained special analysis

from the intellectual Raymundo Faoro. In other words, patrimonialism is the substantivation of a term from adjectival origin: patrimonial, which describes and defines a specific type of domination. Domination is a specific type of power represented by a will of the ruler which makes the dominated takes actions, in socially relevant degree, as if they were carrying this will. What matters for Weber, more than the actual obedience, is the sense and degree of its acceptance as a valid norm - both by the rulers, who say and believe they have the authority to command, and the dominated, who believe that authority and internalize their duty of obedience.

emergence of the Brazilian political system as a patrimonial structure and strongly

rooted by clientelist practices.

In Os Donos do Poder (The Owners of the Power) by Faoro (1995-1996), and

Bases do Autoritarismo Brasileiro (Basis of Authoritarianism in Brazil) by Simon

Schwartzman (1988) the authors demonstrate how the development of the Brazilian

political system occurred between the confronting of the state power versus the

representative trends (expression of regional or autonomous force from the civil

society). In other words, instead of groups able to formulate specific demands and

canalize them to the state, what happened in Brazil was the policy participation for the

achievement of positions within the state, increasing the power of this central nucleus.

In another analysis also inspired by the Weber’s patrimonialism, Sérgio Buarque

de Holanda (1995) emphasized the weight of the agrarian origins of the Brazilian

society and how occurred the privatization of public space, in opposite to the European

process of state building where the impersonal logic of social relationship prevailed.

With the opening provided by the delay of the military regime, it can be seen in

Brazilian society demonstrations of a new organizational force by the appearance of

new forms of participation. These new social rearrangements attends in the public

scenario claiming the autonomy of society from the state, questioning the conventional

forms of political representation (like parties) and suggesting direct or semi-direct ways

of participation.

However, it is important to note that the incorporation of these new elements in

the process of democratic construction in Brazil, as well as the formation of a state and

a modern market did not change relations between individuals and social groups, as

well did not prevent the persistence of political traditional structures and

representations.

Avritzer (1994) calls attention to the need of realizes that "there is a gap between

the formal existence of institutions and the democratic incorporation of the everyday

practices of political actors". In other words, it is observed in the Brazilian case the

existence of a non-democratic political culture intertwined with the democratic

institutionality, resulting in the assumption of the “existence of two political cultures

and point the dispute between them within the political system” (AVRITZER, 1994,

112). The same would occur, according to the author, in the process of modernization of

the market in Brazil. This process takes place within of the struggle of a traditional

political culture and other democratic (AVRITZER, 1994).

Other theorists of different analytical traditions also highlighted the gap of

national political institutions, as a result of non-harmonic coexistence between different

parameters of sociability policy. To Wanderley Guilherme dos Santos in Razões da

Desordem (Reasons for this Disorder), this "hybrid institution" occurred in Brazil at the

moment in which "an polyarchic order formally established and with a excessively

regulatory and legislative character" faces with "a pre-participatory and statephobic

social hobbesianism”, marking the expression of a lack of interest in the public life

“commonly experienced and interpreted from the perspective of the paternalistic and

clientelist relation” (SANTOS, 1993, 78-79).

For this author, the individual "isolated, non-polyarchy, poor in bonds of social

confraternization prefers to deny the conflict to admit being a victim of it". In this way,

the "Brazilian polyarchy is restricted to a small institutional stain circumscribed by a

huge culture of dissimulation, by diffuse violence, by the individual and family

enclosure" (SANTOS, 1993, 80). According Santos, this double institutionalization

affects negatively the civic culture, which depends of the probabilities of success of the

government policies (SANTOS, 1993, 109).

Finally, Edson Nunes (1997) in his work A Gramática Política do Brasil (The

Political Grammar of Brazil) comes from a theoretical construct in which "two Brazils"

occurs inside of a quadruple building. According the author, the relationships between

public/private sectors in Brazil are governed by four grammars or institutionalized

patterns of interaction: clientelism, corporatism, bureaucratic insulation and

universalism of procedures “would be the slow assertion of a legal-rational bureaucratic

regime and eventually democratic” (NUNES, 1997, 11-12).

The author also highlights that beyond this "gap" between institutions and

political behavior, and this "hybridism" presents in this socio-political national culture,

the "introduction of the modern capitalism in Brazil interacted with the creation of a

syncretic institutional system, national and multi-faceted, and no longer regional and

dualistic" (NUNES, 1997, 19).

Is important highlight that these peculiarities presented in the Brazilian case are

not stones that hinder the modernization of political and economic structures of the

Brazil, but components that configure these structures giving them shape and

specificity. Therefore, this combination of polyarchy and archaic practices and non-

capitalist of reciprocity based on the personalism strengthens more and more these

Brazilian hybrid characteristic refractory to universalism of procedures and

accountability.

The tendency in this type of culture is to limit and constrain processes more

focused on participation and public exposure. We can also say that the entrepreneurial

model emerges as an important alternative once it affirms the importance of policy

results, relating the political and administrative continuity to the efficiency in the

provision of public services, and, more importantly, the emphasis on results relocates

and presents a new meaning to the principle of universality of proceedings against a

style of state/society relationship based on privileges and in the exchange of favors.

However, it is important to emphasize two important points that deserve to be

taken into account. First, the fact that we should not overestimate the qualities of this

new model, since are increasingly the cases of corruption in the private sector, in

addition to not always be the imperative of competitiveness coherent with the public

policies. Secondly, since the stage of formulation until the implementation and

evaluation of its efficiency, one public policy wil suffers influences of various aspects,

these are: institutional, economic, political, social, etc.

Therefore, as noted Frey (2000), "the policy analysis aims to analyze the

interrelationship between political institutions, the political process and the political

content with the framework of the traditional questions of political science" (FREY,

2000, 216).

The author shows that beyond the institutional dimension (polity), related to the

order of the political system, the procedural dimension (politics) for the political

process, and finally the material dimension (policy) related to the material content of the

political decisions, we must also pay attention to the fact that the temporal dimension of

the process of implementing a public policy (policy cicle) and that “the disputes

between these dimensions always leave marks on the public policy” (FREY, 2000, 218).

Thus, the emerging trends of the attempt to insert management practices in

public administration will vary especially by the disputes that occurred in the policy

arena between these three dimensions, plus the temporal dimension, but also for

networks formed by the processes of policy networks and issues networks, and in the

concrete course of these experiments it will be possible evaluate and understand in what

direction the innovative principles presents in the model management could become

innovative practices within the public administration, especially as regards to the

standards of state-society relationship.

Final Considerations

It’s due to the numerous considerations given above and having the dimension

of the real importance about the changes brought in the third sector that this article

analyzes the capacity of the Brazilian third sector adapt itself to political changes

initiated in the 1990s and that will last until the present. It is known that the size of the

state is behind all the changes in action on issues of public character in Brazil, but

contemporaneously it splits into two large groups of intellectuals: on the one hand are

those that preach the need for a return to times when the state was synonymous of

gigantism. On the other hand, neo-classical liberals that preached the symmetrical

opposite, in other words, the downsized state.

Going against the radicalism - statist and neoliberal - we recognize that the state

remains ndispensable to ensure equity and social justice, still being an actor that has the

most highly structured mechanisms to formulate and coordinate actions capable of

catalyzing agents around extensive proposals that do not lose sight of the universal

policies combined with the guarantee of equity (FERRAREZI, 2001, p. 13). For this

reason it is important to mention that although some authors emphasize a possible

correlation of the emergence of the third sector with the crisis of the welfare state is

important to emphasize that the third sector does not necessarily must hold the offices

of the state in the proposing and implementing of social policies.

Using the metaphor of Fernandes (1994) this discussion concerns only to the tip

of the iceberg below the water surface. As we seen, the practices existing in the

Brazilian public policies such as clientelism, patrimonialism and corporativism makes

necessary a expansion of space for discussion and defining of the public interest,

allowing that a renewed civil society through the social control strengthen the governing

state ability from the transparency of its actions, making them permeable to the

demands of the social rights (SANTOS, 1996). This is where the issue of third sector

gains meaning and relevance. Thus, it is necessary return immediately to the struggles

for civil rights, recognizing that the end of the military regimes did not result in a

miraculously social justice.

The various initiatives of partnership between organizations of the third sector

and state should work as a bet in the reversal of mere clienteles or passive receptors of

funding for implementation of social policies of the state, but also for the formation of

“active subjects” and co-responsible for the solution of their own problems.

It is from these prerogatives that is possible to dare in the try of "chart" a

historical evolution of the Brazilian non-governmental organizations that had, at first, a

character strongly marked by the influence of the church (mainly the Catholic) and in

the later stages showed a extension of its scope of action, a increased

"bureaucratization" in its institutional form, and finally entered into a phase with a

strong presence of the accountability, justifying their activities with greater clarity in

relation to projects developed by these organizations.

It is undeniable that the proliferation of new forms of participation that was

called of third sector and that now establish a direct dialogue with the state coincides

with a parallel process of loss of confidence in systems of traditional representation in

societies of advanced capitalism, as well as a reducing of the effectiveness of political

institutions such as political parties, parliament and elections, both in developed

countries and Latin America.

Occur in this case, a process that Doimo (1995) called "politicization of the

social”, in other words, the decisions of power:

[...] step into the porosity of the social tissue, influencing the cultural dispositions of common sense which leads to a predisposition of commom individuals to form groups of common interest and build demands directly attributed to the decision-making centers of the state apparatuses" (DOIMO, 1995, 54).

It is also important to recognize that the implementation of these new

management models generates the "expose of the state to control society, even with

differents form and intensity", in other words, imples to breaking a pattern of

"encapsulation" and expose the state control to a kind of accountability which is still not

done traditionally in our country, as noted Tatagiba (2003, 54).

One of the focal points that compose the new participatory formats is the

involvement of profit and non-profit private sectors in the distribution of goods and

services previously exclusive of the state, such as research and development of new

forms of governance and new forms of "draw" a public policy. Once transformed into a

management tool, the participation comes to mean an indispensable condition for the

effectiveness of programs and projects, given the expectation of cost reduction,

optimization of efforts and the control of application and distribution of public funds.

Thus, it is important to note, according Tatagiba (2003) that the “innovative

experiences of management” can assume tutelar or emancipatory characteristics, and

can also act both towards the democratization of the relationship between state, market

and society, as can keep/strengthen the traditional ties. According Tatagiba, it would

occur because if in one hand the new modalities relate to the issue of proliferation of the

public spaces, management democratization and expansion of themes and inclusion of

new actors, on the other hand, is possible compose strategies of deresponsibilization of

the state, transferring spaces and responsibilities for civil society actors.

The participation of the third sector in the decision-making of public actions

make up a tension field of forces as the actors of the first two sectors - state and market

- start to act on it, conditioning its actions through financing targeted. To fit as a new

acting way by the civil society, the third sector needs to position itself as a concrete

actor in the field of forms, playing the important role of social control of the actions of

other sectors, ensuring the effective implementation of relevant public issues and not

restricting its activities to support the actions of state and market. Therefore, we speak

of a challenge of identity, perspective currently present in the reality of these

organizations.

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