The rights approach to local public management: experiences from Brazil

ADMINISTRAÇÃO PÚBLICA

The rights approach to local public management: experiences from Brazil

Peter Spink

Professor of the Department of Administration and Human Resources at EAESP/FGV and Coordinator of the Public Management and Citizenship Program. E-mail: [e-mail]

ABSTRACT

The Fundação Getulio Vargas, São Paulo, Public Management and Citizenship Program was set up in 1996 with Ford Foundation support to identify and disseminate Brazilian subnational government initiatives in service provision that have a direct effect on citizenship. Already, the program has 2,500 different experiences in its data bank, the results of four annual cycles. The article draws some initial conclusions about the possibilities of a rights-based approach to public management and about the engagement of other agencies and civil society organizations.

Key words: Innovation, subnational government, public administration, citizenship, decentralization.

RESUMO

O Programa Gestão Pública e Cidadania da Fundação Getulio Vargas, São Paulo, foi criado em 1996 com o apoio da Fundação Ford para identificar e disseminar iniciativas inovadoras na prestação de serviços por governos subnacionais brasileiros com um impacto direto na construção da cidadania. Nos seus primeiros quatro anos, o programa acumula mais de 2.500 experiências diferentes no seu banco de dados. As conclusões iniciais apontam para uma nova abordagem sobre administração pública centrada nos direitos individuais e coletivos e para a importância do envolvimento de outras agências públicas e organizações da sociedade civil no processo de construção de caminhos viáveis.

Palavras-chave: Inovação, governo subnacional, administração pública, cidadania, descentralização.

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NOTES

Paper presented at XXII International Congress of LASA, Latin American Studies Association, Miami, Florida, March 16-18th, 2000.

1. The Public Management and Citizenship Program is essentially a collective endeavour and many thanks are due to my co-director, Marta Ferreira Santos Farah, Ilka Camarotti, coordinator of the special project on Poverty, and to the program staff which include many FGV postgraduates, which are very capably led by Viviane Novell Ails: Fabian Paschal Cinches, Fernando Martinez de Oliver, Hello Batiste Barbs, Juliana Maria Paris Spink, Luis Mario Fujiwara, Maria Beaters de Araújo Asperti, Marlei de Oliveira, Nelson Luiz Nouvel Alessio, Patricia Laczynski, Ricardo Ernesto Vasquez Beltrão.

2. Ford Foundation members Bradford Smith, Elizabeth Leeds, Michael Lipsky and Nigel Brooke have been a constant source of encouragement and ideas as have many other members of the Ford Governance and Civil Society network. Since 1997, they have been joined by Beatriz Azeredo and Marta Prochnik from the BNDES.

3. Taken from the program regulations. A full description of the program, application forms, regulations and all material generated can be found on its website (http://inovando.fgvsp.br) or by post at Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Av. 9 de Julho, 2029, Bela Vista, São Paulo (SP), CEP 01313-902, Brazil. Telephone: [phone] – fax: [phone] – e-mail: [e-mail].

4. By listed order of institution: José Carlos Gomes de Pinho, Humberto Marques Filho, Luis Roque Klering, Fernando Guilherme Tenorio, Laura da Veiga, Edna Ramos de Castro, Silvio Caccia Bava, Pedro Jacobi, Nancy Cardia, Thereza Lobo, Marlene Libardoni, Grazia di Grazia and Jorge Terena. A key role in the earlier years was played by Ailton Krenak of the Nucleus for Indigenous Culture.

5. Centre of Latin American Studies (Cambridge and the Brazil Center), University of Texas (Austin).

6. At least 1 year of effective operation and coordinated by a subnational public sector agency or indigenous peoples own government.

7. A full list of all publications and technical notes is available on the web page, most of which can be downloaded and other ordered directly from the program office.

8. See the various papers brought together in Bresser Pereira and Spink (1999).

9. See Evans (1995) for a critical discussion in relation to Central America.

10. For a specific discussion of the non-profit sector, see Smith and Lipsky (1993).

11. See the various countries in the studies organized by Clarke and Pitelis (1993).

12. See Refounding Democratic Public Administration organized by Wamsley and Wolf (1996).

13. Here the works of Friedmann (1992) and Sen (1992) are of extreme importance.

14. See the preliminary work of the Division for Democratic Governance, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) (1998).

15. See recent discussions in Latin America by Botero (1997), Grau (1997), Hopenhayn (1997) and Pinho (1998). 16. This is the broad definition provided by Rosenau (1995), see also March and Olsen (1995).

17. The anxiety grew to alarming levels as the deadline for entries approached – as indeed it continues to do year after year. But, true to Brazilian tradition, all the entrants arrived at the last minute, flooding out the FGV mail system and blocking its switchboard.

18. Special thanks to Ricardo Ernesto Vasquez Beltrão, Patrícia Laczynski, Roberta Clemente, Rosane Keppke, Fernanda Martinez de Oliveira and José Luis Abreu Dutra for the various tables in this section.

19. A reminder that all material generated within the program is available for downloading from the program’s website or can be obtained in printed versions from the program office.

20. Data analyzed by Fernanda Martinez de Oliveira and José Luiz Abreu Dutra.

21. For a fuller description, see Camarotti and Spink (1999, 2000).

22. Research undertaken with Roberta Clemente and Rosane Keppke.

23. Carried out by Ricardo Beltrão.

24. For example, Carroll (1992), Lemaresquier (1980), Smillie and Helmich (1993).

25. For a good discussion on Latin America, see Bebbington (1997).

26. See the study by Tenorio (1997) on the 1996 entrants.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  23 Sept 2011
• Date of issue
  Sept 2000