Coalition presidentialism is defined as a multiparty system in which the president faces big challenges to govern due to the high party fragmentation that makes the formation of a majority in Congress more difficult. So, she/he forms a coalition for her/his own political survival in order to sustain her/his political agenda. Often, a coalition materializes through the allocation of cabinet positions to parties in exchange for political support in Congress, although the president can also appoint technical and non-partisan ministers in accordance to her/his objectives. In any case, portfolios are important in forming coalitions because they are responsible for formulating, implementing and monitoring public policies at the federal level and represent access to important resources such as office positions and budget.
In Brazil, legislating on the structure of the Federal Public Administration is exclusively competence of the President, so the number of portfolios varies between different administrations. In Collor’s administration, the number of portfolios ranged from 12 to 14, while in Itamar’s and Fernando Henrique’s administrations, the number was around 20. In Lula’s first term, it increased to 23. His second term ended up with 24 ministries, remaining the same number during Dilma’s administration. Temer reduced some portfolios and completed his tenure with 23. If we consider all bodies with ministerial status, these numbers increases to 16 (Collor), 27 (Itamar), 23 (FHC’s 1st term), 26 (FHC’s 2nd term), 30 (Lula’s 1st term I), 37 (Lula’s 2nd term), 39 (Dilma) and 29 (Temer).
Over the years, many changes have been made in the internal structures of these portfolios by administrative decrees and constitutional decrees that have the force of laws (Provisional Measures). The president can create, merge, dismember, or even transfer one agency from one portfolio to another, and thus control the prerogatives and competencies that will be under the jurisdiction of a particular minister or party.
President Jair Bolsonaro, elected in the second round of the 2018 elections, gained support for his politically conservative and economically liberal speech. With an agenda of reduction of the State and the public expenditure, one of his campaign promises was to reduce the number of portfolios to 15. However, following the first month of his winning, he reconsidered his decision and pre-defined 18 portfolios on his list, considering all bodies with ministerial status. This number rose to 22 when he issued the Provisional Measure 870, which establishes the basic organization of the Presidency and Portfolios. This decree still needs Congressional approval within 120 days, however, it already tells us a lot about the tone of the president regarding public policies and the dynamics of his government.
One strategy adopted to reduce the State was the merging of portfolios and the creation of super-ministries with multiple attributions and competencies. The Ministry of Economy is an example, emerging from the union of four other ministries (Finance; Planning, Development and Management; Industry, Foreign Trade and Services; Labor). This super-ministry was delivered to Paulo Guedes, an economist with a clear liberal inclination and without prior experience in the public sector. The new ministry now includes seven agencies besides the National Treasury Attorney’s Office. Some agencies’s names certainly reflect the promises of the president’s campaign, such as the Special Secretariat for Privatization and Divestment; the Special Secretariat for Productivity, Employment and Competitiveness; and the Special Secretariat De-bureaucratization, Management and Digital Government. In addition, one of the new administration’s challenging and prioritized agendas is being led by Guedes – the pension reform – and the transfer of the National Social Security Institute to the Economy portfolio reinforces this movement.
Another super-ministry was handed over to Judge Sérgio Moro, leading figure of the Car-wash Operation, whose investigation resulted in the condemnation and imprisonment of the former president Lula in April 2018. The Ministry of Justice and Public Security was the result of the merging of these two portfolios and maintained much of the structure given by former President Temer. The ministry incorporated the Council for Control of Financial Activities and the National Immigration Council as collegiate bodies. The incorporation of COAF is generating noise, because in addition to losing some prerogatives, it was responsible for the detection of atypical movements in the bank account of Fabrício Queiroz, a former adviser of the President’s son and elected senator, Flávio Bolsonaro.
The Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Culture, and the Ministry of Sport were merged into the Ministry of Citizenship under the command of Osmar Terra (MDB-RS), one of the few political appointments in a cabinet composed mainly of technical and military ministers. The new portfolio fuses very specific policies and it is important to monitor whether there will be a reduction in social programs.
The Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, led by Pastor Damares Alves, absorbed all the structures of the former Ministry of Human Rights and included the National Council of Indigenous Policy, National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) and the Commission of Amnesty, which was previously part of the Ministry of Justice, as well as the National Youth Council and the National Youth Secretariat which was located in the Presidency. Some indigenous issues were also transferred to the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, like the identification, delimitation, and demarcation of indigenous lands, previously FUNAI’s competence. This weakening of FUNAI may be a problem for the effectiveness of the rights of the indigenous peoples in Brazil, with the risk of treating the indigenous issue from a logic merely of productivity, as the Judges for Democracy Association (AJD) alerts.
Likewise, the Ministry of Environment lost important structures. The portfolio is now under the command of Ricardo Salles, accused of favoring mining companies in São Paulo when he was the Secretary of Environment. The Brazilian Forestry Service was incorporated into the Ministry of Agriculture, now under the command of Congresswoman Tereza Cristina, leader of the ruralist group in Congress. The ministry also lost the National Water Agency and the National Water Resources Council to the Ministry of Regional Development. The latter is the result of the merging of the Ministry of Cities and the Ministry of Regional Integration. The Secretary for Climate Change and Forests that used to handle policies related to climate change, combat to deforestation and revitalization of watersheds does not exist anymore. The same applies to the Secretariat for Institutional Articulation and Environmental Citizenship. The Secretariat of International Relations was created to tackle global issues, multilateral organizations and international agreements. These changes reinforce the agenda proposed by President Bolsonaro, who gave up incorporating the Ministry of Environment into the Ministry of Agriculture, but emptied it by transferring important agencies to other portfolios.
The Ministry of Education remained, but with some changes. The Secretariat for Basic Education, that was formed by three boards before, now has five, including the Board of Policies and Regulation of Basic Education and the Sub-secretariat for the Promotion of Military Civic Schools. The former Secretariat for Continuing Education, Literacy, Diversity and Inclusion became simply the Secretariat for Literacy. According to the newspaper Folha, this change was a maneuver to eliminate topics like human rights, ethnic-racial education and diversity. In its place, the Secretariat of Specialized Modalities of Education was created. The chosen minister for this portfolio was Ricardo Vélez Rodrígues, a Colombian Professor and philosopher, indicated by the writer Olavo de Carvalho who promises to combat “cultural Marxism” in educational institutions.
These and several other changes made in the structure of the Brazilian portfolios indicate a strong reorganization of salient areas for the government that were strategically dislocated among the ministries to enable the President’s conservative project for social policies and liberal in economics. It is important to note that agencies or portfolios are rarely created out of nowhere, rather, they usually combine personnel, resources and competencies coming from pre-existing ones. So, the agglutination of ministries can give a false sense of savings of public spending, but their internal structures and positions can remain unchanged or even increase.
Observing changes at portfolios help us to understand the cabinet’s formation, since the size and the extension of the administrative structure of the Executive matters for the configuration of political relations and the formation of coalitions.
10 de Janeiro de 2019
Rosilene Guerra – Is a MA in Political Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, the same university which she holds a BA degree in Public Management.