Administrative Reform Under Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio da Silva

This chapter compares two waves of administrative reform. The FHC era emphasized managerial efficiency and privatization, while the Lula era focused on expanding and professionalizing the civil service. Both reforms, however, failed to dismantle entrenched clientelist and corporatist structures, inadvertently empowering a technocratic elite that often resists democratic oversight.