Recruitment and profile of Brazilian higher public administrators in economic and social areas from 1994 to 2012

Abstract This article analyzes the profile of the public managers of four ministries: Finance and Planning, representing the economic area, and Health and Education, as examples of the social area. Based on empirical data, a comparison of the profile of the occupants of these senior positions from 1995 to 2012 is proposed. The research demonstrates the specificities of the recruitment pattern in these two areas of the bureaucratic field and shows that the public leaders of the economic area come from the most favored social sectors, present a more technical pattern and are less engaged in political, social and union matters. However, they are not intellectually superior in terms of qualifications. The data allow to discuss Bourdieu`s theses on the elites of the bureaucratic field and help to demonstrate the myths about the greater academic qualification of the bureaucratic sectors of the economic and financial areas.