ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: In this paper, I look at the roles that modernization, restructuring, and computerization are playing in changing local governments and public bureaucracies’ performance in Brazil. Policy analysts saw development failures, disappointments, and the welfare state crisis not simply as the result of inappropriate policy choices, but also because state institutions were performing poorly. They proposed modernization, restructuring, and computerization as a panacea to these problems. Particularly, local governments used technological strategies as a means of rationalizing and of increasing efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector. In the State Taxation Offices, computerization has led to faster and more accurate information, which, in turn, led to greater accountability and transparency in the tax collection. Moreover, these technological changes affected the organizational structure, the professionalization of public officials, and the institutional arrangements. This is particularly relevant in Brazil, where 27 State Taxation Offices have undergone extensive organizational change and computerization. I study six cases in Brazil and reveal the existence of core strategies for change, their sequencing, results, and timing affecting the organizational structure, the cadre of professionals, their workplace, and institutional arrangements. The latter includes the relationship among public sector agencies and private organizations and professional associations, such as public officials’ unions. Also I show how local culture and political ideology affects the use, sequencing, and timing of these strategies and changes.
