Governance and the new management of political action

• Grant number: 17/23401-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: July 01, 2018
• End date: June 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Olgária Chain Féres Matos
• Grantee: Mariana de Mattos Rubiano
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

One of the outstanding matters of the Contemporary Political Philosophy is the emergence and the hegemony of neoliberal thought and practices. The effects of neoliberalism have been discussed not only on economy as also on government, on public realm, on way of life and on subjectivity. Taking that into account, this research proposal aims at thinking over one of the elements which have been mobilized to preserve and support the neoliberalism since the 1990's, namely, the governance. The governance emerged in the context of reviewing the implementation of neoliberal reforms, which was promoted by multilateral organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the United Nations, and was one of the most important elements of the State apparatus reform in Brazil. In this regard, it is essential to inquire what is governance and what sort of government and politics it enables. For this purpose, this research should analyse how governance reorganizes the State's role and functions by reforming public administration and how it impacts the public realm, the behaviors and activities of the citizens. The hypothesis to be explored is that governance can not be reduced to a simple public administration reform made to become the State institutions more efficient in accomplishing government decisions. It bounds the action field of public authorities and elected representatives by defining the role of the State and the practices inside it, furthermore, it pursuits the exclusion of public decisions many political manifestations by setting consensus, suppressing debates, obliterating political disputes, managing social issues and producing a specific kind of citizenship. (AU)