Governability, Governance, and Democracy: Governing Capacity and Executive-Legislative Relations in Brazil since Enactment of the New Constitution

Abstract

The article first offers some considerations regarding the concepts governability and government as used in the recent literature and, for analytical purposes, suggests the term governing capacity. In a context of economic reforms and democratization, Executive-Legislative relations form one of the key elements of governing capacity. Contesting Brazilian literature on this topic, the article grounds itself in basic policies on the agendas of the Collor and Itamar Franco administrations to argue that if there is a deficit in the implementation of a good share of economic stabilization policies and policies to open up trade, produced within relatively insulated bureaucracies, at the same time the structural reform policies submitted to Congress (social welfare, privatization, administration, taxation) have fallen short not just in the realm of implementation but in the realm of formulation as well. Underscoring the complexity of the policy-making phase, the text cites some causes, such as problems the government encounters in building stable majorities within Congress. Given this difficulty, the Executive must often engage in tough negotiations to get governmental policies approved, and it ends up entering into a pattern of conflict in its interactions with the Legislative branch. As a consequence, government leaders are tempted to favor the relatively insulated arena of bureaucracies over the parliament, with foreseeable consequences for the process of democratization within Brazil. Based on this scenario, the article asks what type of democracy Brazil can or is willing to build.