Abstract
This article analyzes institutional creation in the public policy process by having the concept of synergy as defined by Evans (1996) as a basis. To do this, we examine a case study related to the One Million Rural Cisterns Program (P1MC), conducted in the field of water policies in the Brazilian semiarid region. This is a qualitative research focused on Vale do São Francisco and it gathered a set of civil society and public organizations located in the microregion of Juazeiro, Bahia, Brazil. In addition to documentary data, the investigation addressed the collection and analysis of data obtained through interviews. We observed a history of social relations unlikely to provide imaginative creation of institutional arrangements that could facilitate synergistic State-society interactions in that context, although empowerment and social capital accumulation over the years have enabled some transformations and collective enterprises in the communities under study.
Keywords:
Public policies; State-society relations; Political neoinstitutionalism; Institutional creation; Synergy