Dados is one of the most widely-read social sciences journals in Latin America. Created in 1966, it publishes innovative works, originating from academic research, by Brazilian and foreign authors. Edited by IESP-UERJ, it aims to reconcile scientific rigor and academic excellence with an emphasis on public debate based on the analysis of substantive issues of society and politics.
Dados vol. 43 n. 1 Rio de Janeiro 2000
Abstract
In the 1980s, a conservative movement for public sector reforms attempted to adjust civil servants’, (alleged) egotistical, amoral behavior to the efficient achievement of collective goals, in accordance with the principles of Adam Smith’,s invisible hand. Based on Karl Polanyi’,s and Max Weber’,s classic works on the establishment of the market and of modern bureaucracy, respectively, the article endeavors to show how the conservative approach errs by ignoring the specificities of bureaucratic organization as well as the socially constructed character of the market mentality. The conclusion is that public sector reforms based on the assumption of self-interest end up breeding suspicion and fostering precisely the corrupt behavior that they are meant to forestall, thereby reinforcing the State’,s incapacity to properly manage its actions in the social sphere.
Keywords: public sector reform, ethics, neoliberalism
DOI: 10.1590/S0011-52582000000100004
Bureaucratic ethics, the market, and administrative ideology: contradictions in the conservative response to the State’,s 'crisis of character'
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