The Brazilian economic and social development council from a legal-institutional perspective: an investigation on effectiveness and legitimacy in the new Brazilian developmental state

• Grant number: 17/03528-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: May 01, 2017
• End date: July 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law - Public Law
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Diogo Rosenthal Coutinho
• Grantee: Henrique Almeida de Castro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Direito (FD). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Developmental states that managed to engender economic growth leaps, highlights current research, relied on bureaucracies that were not only autonomous, but also embedded in a network of connections with the private sector. However, in both the Brazilian and in the international experience, such ties included only a handful of internal and external players (thus ruling out most of civil society). The literature, therefore, indicates an impasse: is it possible to construct a state that is both developmental and democratic? Under the hypothesis that attempts to resolve this tension must necessarily account for the concrete institutional arrangements that structure state activity - and in which law is inevitably interwoven -, I propose with this research project a master's thesis structure aimed at analyzing the Brazilian Economic and Social Development Council from a legal-institutional perspective. The Council is an institution created in 2003 with the aim of fostering contact and exchange between the public and private sectors - this time, however, while also including representatives from a wider variety of social sectors. Supported by an interdisciplinary literature and empirical research methods, I aim to understand how the Council's legal-institutional structure contributes to determining the effectiveness and legitimacy of its deliberations. With this research I intend to further the current understanding of the arrangements that shape public-private cooperation in the new Brazilian developmental state. (AU)