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 1990s, 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 nongovernmental 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 sectors 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.
Lets 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. Theres 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 Marketemphasizing 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" thats
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? Lets 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

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 Theology4. 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.

Groups mainly linked to the Catholic Church and encouraged by the Second Vatican Council (19621965). 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

"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. Its 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 theres 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. Thats 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 (BRESSERPEREIRA, 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 nonstate 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,
dont 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

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 Webers 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 Webers patrimonialism, Srgio 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 Razes 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 Gramtica Poltica 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

Its 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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