Professionalizing bureaucracy and building state capacities: are there unequal advances in Brazilian public administration?

Abstract This article contributes to the discussion on public administration in Brazil. It examines the differences between the four functions of the state (basic functions, welfare, infrastructure and development, and emerging functions), based on the positions and careers of public servants. The data were collected in 2014 using a survey with public managers from different agencies of the Brazilian federal administration. The results point to distinctions regarding the roles played by middle managers, considering their distribution by state functions, profile, and activities. In a historical perspective, although there are basic functions that constitute the state, the creation of new careers and the recruitment of staff in the bureaucracy resulted in unequal development of the different state functions, generating imbalance and asymmetries. Also, emerging functions are generating new, more flexible, and dynamic ways for managers to work, which have renewed the Brazilian bureaucracy, albeit in a limited and heterogeneous way.