ABSTRACT
Since the 1930s there were changes in Brazilian political system (up to this year there was an oligarchical democracy followed by a dictatorship that lasted until 1945, democracy from 1946 through 1964, military regime until 1985 and again democracy). This discontinuity created a political and institutional process that incorporated innovation while maintaining “old” policy styles. In each of these great periods new layers were incorporated, but at the same time the old ones kept on being relevant. Because of that, the democratization after 1985 not just fostered political transformation but also kept old policy styles. Both path dependency an institutional innovation in different levels characterize the co-evolution of different policy styles. The co-evolutionary policy style is characterized by “siloization” or “pillarization” of the public sector in which different arenas have specialized and non-overlapping roles, and has produced fragmentation and self-centered authorities weakly cooperative and coordinated. In sum, co-evolutionary policy style combines gradual institutional change with institutional innovation, and generates the coexistence of different logics of silo sectors acting separated, including in the same policy. This is the situation of Brazilian policy style taking into account the last thirty years, period of return of democracy.
