The Trajectory of Accountability in Brazilian Public Administration: From Redemocratization to Democratic Backsliding during Bolsonaro’s Presidency

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the theoretical, conceptual, and institutional development of accountability in Brazil, from the period of redemocratization to the Bolsonaro administration. It is a theoretical essay that examines accountability from a public administration perspective, identifying legal and institutional advances that enabled the materialization of the concept in the following decades, and from a political science perspective, revisiting the theoretical-conceptual framework of democratic accountability, anchored in modern democratic theory, exploring its political dimension and its relationship with power dynamics within the Brazilian democratic context. The timeframe adopted spans from the 1990s, taking Campos’s work as a reference, through Bolsonaro’s presidency (2019-2022), in order to understand the extent to which this period aligns with the structural characteristics identified by Campos, and how it affected the advancement and consolidation of democratic accountability in Brazil. Although the national literature highlights persistent difficulties in implementing accountability in Brazilian public administration, over the years there has been a gradual evolution of the concept in legal, institutional, and societal terms, as democratic foundations were progressively restored. Bolsonaro’s presidency, however, represents a period marked by attempts to revert to the parameters initially described by Campos, such as authoritarianism and the delegitimization of institutions.