The executive branch as legislator: The political dynamic surrounding educational reform in minas gerais (2003-2014)

Abstract

The following article examines the institution for educational reform in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais in 2013 to 2014 from a normative perspective, analyzing the trajectory of decisionsmade and positions assumed by the state parliament on the use of the delegation of legislative power, by means of an analysis of documents and content. We demonstrate that the Legislative Branch’s decision to delegate its prerogative to legislate on educational reform in a management sense was based on an institutional dynamic and on a structure of incentives allowing the Executive to behave as a legislator. It finishes by concluding that, despite its constitutionality, such a use of delegation has implications on socially sanctioned education, as well as effects on the educational reform’s democratic capacities.