Capacidade burocrática no Brasil e na Argentina: quando a política faz a diferença

Este estudo analisa a capacidade burocratica dos governos federais da Argentina e do Brasil a partir do conceito de capacidade do Estado. Foram investigadas a profissionalizacao, a qualificacao, as regras para promocao e a forma de recrutamento dos servidores. Este Texto para Discussao conclui que, embora a trajetoria inicial de constituicao do sistema burocratico tenha sido semelhante nos dois paises, a forma de recrutamento da burocracia passou a ser diferente apos a redemocratizacao. O Brasil cumpriu os requisitos da autoridade racional-legal weberiana – selecao via concursos competitivos e emprego com estabilidade –, enquanto a Argentina manteve o recrutamento baseado nos lacos pessoais e/ou partidarios e sem estabilidade. Isto nao significa que a burocracia argentina careca de qualidade, mas, sim, que o sistema nao cumpre ainda os requisitos weberianos de merito e estabilidade. Essa diferenca e explicada pelas agendas da redemocratizacao de cada pais, que privilegiaram distintas questoes. The study analyses bureaucratic capacity in Brazil´s and Argentina´s federal governments by applying the concept of state capacity. To capture the capacity civil servants the study investigated dimensions such as professionalization, qualification, promotion rules, and recruitment mechanisms for entering the civil service. The study shows that although both countries experienced the same trajectory in the early years of the construction of their bureaucratic systems and that access to civil service combined patronage and meritocratic patterns in the early 2000s, however, Brazilian political elites implemented a constitutional mandate determining that access to civil service was conditioned to competitive exams, making the system closer to Weber´s rational-legal authority type. Argentina, in contrast, kept the selection of their civil servants based on personal and political ties. This does not mean that Argentina´s bureaucracy lacks quality but they do not fulfill some of Weber´s requirements such as stability and selection more based on merit rather than patronage. The study argues this difference is explained by different redemocratization agendas.