by PublicABCP
Translated and reviewed by Matheus Lucas Hebling
The book “As Políticas Públicas do Governo Bolsonaro: Desmonte, Resiliência e Refundação” brings together analyses by 25 authors from six universities, documenting the strategies and impacts of the dismantling of federal public policies between 2019 and 2022. The volume is edited by Carlos Aurélio Pimenta de Faria, professor in the Graduate Programme in Social Sciences and the International Relations programme at PUC Minas, and Luciana Leite Lima. Both are associate researchers at the Centre for International Studies on Government (CEGOV) at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).
Published by Jacarta Produções in partnership with CEGOV, the book is divided into two sections. The first, A General Anatomy of the Scorched Earth Policy, offers a macro-level analysis of public policy under Bolsonaro. The second, Sectoral Anatomy of Bolsonaro’s Destruction, presents case studies on specific sectors.
The chapters originate from discussions and presentations held during the 13th Meeting of the Brazilian Political Science Association (ABCP), which took place online in September 2022 and was co-organised with the Federal University of Goiás.
The contributions are based on research and debates carried out by experts from institutions including the University of São Paulo (USP), the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), and the University of Brasília (UnB).
The book reveals that in the health sector, the Bolsonaro administration adopted several measures that led to budget cuts for the Unified Health System (SUS) and the dismantling of mental health and Indigenous health programmes. Analyses show that these decisions weakened the health system’s response during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing public vulnerability. Another key finding concerns the relaxation of firearms regulations, which significantly expanded gun circulation and introduced new challenges to public safety.
In education, the book identifies a systematic dismantling of educational policy, including major budget cuts and changes to student funding programmes. These measures, the study argues, undermined the quality of public education and widened inequality in access to education. The environmental policy rollback is also widely discussed, with emphasis on reduced environmental inspections and increased deforestation in the Amazon, causing serious negative impacts for environmental conservation and Indigenous communities.
The book’s main conclusion is that the dismantling of public policies was a central objective of the Bolsonaro administration. The authors detail how policies were reshaped, the strategies employed to enact these changes, and the resulting consequences for public administration and Brazilian society. The volume contributes to future academic and policy debates on the political legacy of the Bolsonaro government.
About the Editors
Carlos Aurélio Pimenta de Faria is an associate researcher at CEGOV-UFRGS and RIPPERP (Interinstitutional Research Network on Foreign Policy and Political Regime). He holds a BA and teaching qualification in History from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, an MA in Political Science from the Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro (IUPERJ, 1992), a PhD in Political Science from IUPERJ (1997), and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (UK).
Luciana Leite Lima holds a PhD in Social Sciences (Unicamp), an MA in Sociology (UFRGS), and a BA in Administration (Unisinos). She is a professor in the Graduate Programme in Public Policy and in the Department of Sociology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. She is a member of the CNPq research group on Society and Public Policies and the CEGOV working group on Policy Evaluation.
Publication Details
Title: As Políticas Públicas do Governo Bolsonaro: Desmonte, Resiliência e Refundação
Editors: Carlos Aurélio Pimenta de Faria and Luciana Leite Lima
Publisher: Jacarta Produções
Year of Publication: 2024
ISBN: 9786599139154
Available for download at: Lume – UFRGS
