Models of Public Policies' Special Funds Regulation: institutionalization processes embedded in state-society interactions mediated by policy communities

• Grant number: 24/08768-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Public Policies
• Principal Investigator: Adrian Gurza Lavalle
• Grantee: Wanderson Felício de Souza
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07616-7 - CEM - Center for Metropolitan Studies, AP.CEPID

Abstract

This research project aims to examine the existing variations in public policies' special funds regulationand implementation - the Children and Adolescents' Rights Funds (FIA) and Elderly's Rights Funds(FPI). We propose as a working thesis the existence of three formal models of funds' regulation: i)centralized, ii) competitive-decentralized, and iii) cooperative-decentralized. These different patterns ofinstitutionalization are investigated as political processes emerged from state-society interactionsmediated by policy communities (PCs). The central hypothesis is that different actor's configurationswithin PCs explain the emergence of these diverse models. We also hypothesize the existence of aninstitutional fit (GURZA LAVALLE et al, 2019) that biases the decisions of local councils in favor ofbudgetary resources allocation to civil society's actors towards the "decentralized" models (ii and iii).We mobilize the institutionalization studies, which prioritize state-social movements and civilorganizations interactions. Based on the set of propositions of this literature, we use the concept of"policy communities" as an analytical category to reconstruct and investigate the ecology of actorsinvolved in these processes without delimiting a priori the empirical sample of actors involved in thesecommunities. This is a comparative inquiry in which, in addition to examining the FIA and the FPI atthe federal level, we investigate the processes of fund's institutionalization in four subnationalgovernments: Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, and Pernambuco.