Racionalidade burocrática e políticas públicas: crítica ao sistema normativo da assessoria técnica, social e ambiental aos assentamentos da reforma agrária no RS

Abstract

Considering that the implementation of the Rural Extension (RE) services was outsourced by the State in an institutional pluralism environment and that this process was accompanied by an instrumental rationalization of public policies, characterized by increasing regulation and bureaucratic rules, this study aimed to analyze the Regulatory System (ReS) in the configuration of the Technical, Social and Environmental Assistance Program (TSEA) to the settlements of Land Reform in Rio Grande do Sul (RS). We used mixed quantitative and qualitative methods as approach and analytical methods concerning the objectives. We conducted document analysis, observation and individual interviews for the production of narratives concerning the configuration of TSEA services. The analysis was performed from the theoretical perspective and emerging analytical categories, and the data were interpreted and systematized as a whole. The document review sought to characterize the conceptual basis and the guidelines of TSEA and unravel the references that characterized the establishment of ReS that guided the operationalization of the Program in order to enable an understanding of the factors influencing the planning and execution of RE services. TSEA is inserted in the context of reform of the State s role, which is mediated by the neoliberal assumptions and characterized by outsourcing services for institutional pluralism and the expansion of bureaucratic rules on State s actions. We identified that the ReS set in TSEA aimed the clear determination of legal procedures at the expense of development processes, assuring legal and bureaucratic security of contracts and the social legitimacy of the actions developed. Allied to the problems of assessment criteria that could not measure the goals aimed by TSEA, an environment was created which prevailed the meeting of the means in procedures and correspondence with the organizational and operational reality of the institutions involved. In this sense, well-assessed technical teams were those who managed to avoid penalties for meeting regulatory criteria even if their actions had no practical meaning settlers lives. We observed that the ReS of TSEA evolved as inference to the correction of practices and distortions that have been diagnosed during the development of the Program. Methodological and structural innovations have arisen from new regulatory measures, which sought to solve previous operational dysfunctions and prevent new functional deviations. Regulatory System also contributed to the promotion of accommodation of actors from TSEA Program, when it is important to guarantee compliance with the rules, promoting uniform routines. The analysis of the functioning of the TSEA Program also highlighted the commitment of social participation. RS hindered the development of the democratic exercise of social participation. We understand that the combination of executive and participatory decentralization could be the condition to break with the bureaucratic regulation of public policies. We understand that a new configuration of TSEA management model will enable increase the positive results, especially by the conjunction between social demand and actions performed. Thus, there is a challenge that is a new round of discussion and action in the Program, in which the central role is in the management model and adjustments in power relations and the role of the State concerning the reality of settlers.