Jose Celso Cardoso Jr., PhD in Economics (IE-Unicamp), Federal Government Official at IPEA since 1997 and President of Afipea-Sindical since 2019. The conditions in which he writes this text

On October 5, 2021, when CF-1988 turns 33 under the constant attack of atavistic, retrograde and reactionary forces in Brazilian society, it becomes important to restore its original meaning. It is urgent to stop the ongoing comprehensive, deep and quick dismantling of the constitution, to shed light on the vision of the country and the future, which once emerged (or still exists?!) CF-1988.

As the book says 30 Years of the Federal Constitution: Notes for an Early Obituary (Afipea-Sindical, 2018), we understand CF-1988 as something more than a legal document or the pinnacle of a complex national structure of its time. The Constitution embodies – even in its most contradictory aspects – both the will to build a project of society, and the principles and method of this project, based on republican and democratic rules, in the recognition of political, social and cultural diversity in the State as a defender of personal and social rights to historical and cultural heritage and champion of inclusive and environmentally sustainable development. In this sense, especially after the 2016 coup, it is a break with the historical legacy that is still present in our daily life, fraught with authoritarianism, racism, patriarchy, intolerance, social and economic inequality, as well as a process of concentrated development. wealth and power subordinate to the process of capitalist / rent accumulation on a global scale.

Among the ongoing attacks, the PEC 32/2020 administrative deformation is perhaps the most severe and dangerous in recent years. This proposal is filled with a negative and stereotypical view of the Brazilian state, services, politics and civil servants, presenting, above all, an authoritarian, tax and privatist proposal for Brazilian public administration. In this context of a land devastated by a pandemic, industrial and political-institutional regression, as well as the country’s return to the hunger map, it is not difficult to see the inversion of priorities in the national political (in) order. The brutality of the Bolsonaro government has made Brazil the worst country in the world in the fight against the pandemic and the ongoing economic and social crisis.

Through the proposed administrative deformation of Bolsonaro / Gedes, the government is acting to equalize the Brazilian historical standard of working conditions and relationships from below, as well as bringing public sector workers to the millennial level and practice of a national slave society. Here they fail to understand that such productivity gains and improvements in the aggregate institutional performance of the public sector will in fact be the result of long and costly but necessary specialist work. professionalization of the state bureaucracy with time. Consequently, there is no managerial shock or liberal reform – all the more of this authoritarian, fiscal and privatist nature – that would surpass or replace the aforementioned.

In the face of such circumstances, it would be naive (apart from complete historical ignorance) to assume that this type of transformation occurs without conflict, without measurement of forces, or without reaction. Like any political process, it is not neutral in terms of the balance of power between different groups in society. The escalation of political confrontation over the past five years illustrates this, but also demonstrates the impossibility of resolving conflicts within traditional spaces and practices, exemplified by the “presidential coalition approach” (with its visible consequences in terms of corruption and preservation of privileges). and a defined allocation scheme for the public fund that precariously balanced priority over state creditors and relative immunity of property and income from taxation, with limited mechanisms for redistributing income and guaranteeing social protection.

Likewise, the judiciary and police apparatus sees itself in the tension between the slow and contested discoveries of their role as guarantor of rights and public safety, while the opposite reaction is gaining strength, demanding an increase in repressive and punitive nature. , it criminalizes social protest movements and seeks to turn these apparatuses into examples of vetoing and deconstructing policies and initiatives aimed at implementing a constitutional project. This trend has accumulated strength to such an extent that it has conditioned the political process (not only electoral), so that the judiciary, government ministry and the police have become political arenas, accommodating actors who only very indirectly come under democratic electoral control, but vice versa. they act decisively in other public arenas.

In view of all this, we are confident that at this serious moment in national life, the trade union movement organized in the public sector plays a fundamental role in this dirty debate, exposing the misconceptions that ill-wishers of civil servants repeat to the point of exhaustion. but, above all, to work with the topic with the responsibility that it requires, with a public spirit, social sensitivity and scientific rigor. Therefore, it is necessary to reinforce from the outset some of the key messages that permeate the work already done by Afipea-Sindical in partnership with many other civil servants, academics and experts in the field, namely: i) National development as the direction of the car – the action of the head of state, ii) the need for republican reform of the state, iii) reassessment of politics and democracy.[1]

In short, it is a question of rebuilding – ideally and programmatically – the most important possible innovation for building professional public administration that is consistent with the big challenges mentioned above. Therefore, it is necessary to restore the true and innovative administrative reform contained in CF-1988, but only partially and poorly implemented. In addition to establishing state expertise as the main form of entry into public office and RJU (Uniform Legal Regime) as the main provision for their regulation, there are five basic principles that need to be considered for a good governance structure and the right incentives for productivity and satisfactory institutional performance over time. time. These are: i) stability in occupationideally conquered by meritocratic criteria in the general environment of economic homogeneity, political republicanism and social democracy, aimed at protecting against arbitrariness, including party political arbitrariness, committed by the employing state; II) adequate, isonomic and predictable remuneration throughout the entire working cycle; iii) education and high qualifications for admission and continuing education within the core functions of the respective positions and organizations; iv) cooperation – instead of competition – interpersonal and intra / intra-organizational organizations as a performance criterion and the initial method of work in the public sector; and v) freedom of organization and autonomy trade union activities…

Once it becomes clear that public services are very human resource intensive, the relevance of administrative structures and innovations focused on people management and performance management will become clear. Thus, the available data demonstrates the relevance of organizations and social professions for any development project that still targets Brazil in this 21st century. Eliminating such opportunities in the name of liberal fundamentalism will at the same time destroy the transformative potential that Brazilian society has built with the help of the state during these 33 years of democratic constitutional power, as well as jeopardize the chances of emancipation and social development of their state. The population – especially the most vulnerable – is precisely in an economic context (national and international) characterized by enormous complexity and isolation, in the face of which apparently quick and simple solutions are initially doomed to failure.

[1] Therefore, we invite everyone to take responsibility for the content of the above ideas contained in the following works listed below: i) 30 Years of the Federal Constitution: Notes for an Early Obituary (Afipea, 2018).

; II) Dismantling the State and Backwardness: Risks and Challenges for Organizations and Federal State Policy (Arch, Afipea, 2019). ; iii) Towards the Necessary State: Criticizing the Government’s Proposal for Administrative Reform and Alternatives to a Republican, Democratic and Developed Brazil (Fonacate, Afipea, 2020). ; iv) Administrative reform of Bolsonaro / Gedesa: authoritarianism, fiscalism, privatism (Afipea, 2021). ; v) Administrative reform of the federal government and its economic, social and territorial implications in Brazil (REBAP, Afipeya, 2021).