Bureaucracy, patronage politics and educational spending in Brazilian states: the case of the Education Department of Bahia

Abstract

This article analyzes institutions and processes yet understudied in the state level of government: the role of public bureaucracies in the formulation of social policies, as well as the connections between social spending and party and electoral dynamics. The analysis concentrates on a program of school construction and reform implemented in the state of Bahia from 1999 to 2002. To assess the extent in which the State Education Department relied on party-political criteria to allocate investments, we develop a logistic regression model. We also rely on a series of interviews with qualifi ed informants to unveil the internal dynamics of the Education Department. Our conclusion reveals that the results of the expansion program for the secondary and fundamental schooling were shaped by the confl ict between technical and political staff, which in turn promoted the coexistence of distinct rationalities within the education bureaucracy.