This study starts with a historical review of the Civil Service Reforms in Brazil. Then, it focuses on the challenges that any initiative in changing Civil Service suffers at organizational level (efficacy and efficiency) or social level (participation and democracy). It is featured the case of the local authority of São Paulo with a description of its organization and the proposal to modify it. The paper concludes that the proposal contains new and imaginatives solutions for old problems of public management.
Civil service reform; decentralization; democratization; public management; local authority; São Paulo