Middle-level bureaucracy and policy making in the energy sector: a study on the Ministry of Mines and Energy from 2003 to 2022

• Grant number: 22/07802-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2023
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Public Policies
• Principal Investigator: Pedro José Floriano Ribeiro
• Grantee: Cristiano Parra Duarte
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/13015-0 - Mid-Level Bureaucracy and Policy Production in the Energy Sector: A Study on the Ministry of Mines and Energy from 2003 to 2022, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

This research project aims to identify, analyze and explain how the middle-level bureaucracy works, to understand if and in what way it influences the policy-making of the Ministry of Mines and Energy to privilege renewable energies as a ministerial priority. Still, it aims to map and analyze the social networks of the middle-level bureaucracy to demarcate the flows of relationships and ideas as an alternative to explain the growing prioritization of renewable energies by the ministry. For this, an in-depth and qualitative case study is proposed for the time frame from 2003 to 2022. The research proposes the identification of middle-level bureaucrats through the Personnel Statistical Panel, which compiles information about the servers linked to the Integrated Resource Management System Human Resources, to carry out in-depth interviews. These collected data will be analyzed in three ways: (1) Content Analysis and (2) Discourse Analysis to identify profile, identification with environmentalist agendas and/or social movements (activism), opinions, perceptions, and reports about their performance within the ministry, especially related to its role in the decision-making process and in the policy-making process; and (3) Social Network Analysis to map the network of relationships and ideas around the mid-level bureaucracy. This unprecedented research proposes to advance the studies of decision-making processes and policy-making process in a sectoral domain (energy policy) and an object (mid-level bureaucracy) that, despite their relevance, have little space in the political science's research agenda. (AU)