Party filiation and appointment for positions in the Brazilian federal bureaucracy (1999-2018)

Abstract How many are the top and middle-level Brazilian federal bureaucracy appointees, and to which party are they affiliated? Are there differences among presidential mandates regarding the number of these professionals and their party affiliation? This study seeks to answer these questions, by building a new database that gathers the number of party-affiliated public officials that were appointed to Cargos de Direção e Assessoramento Superior (DAS) (position of director and high level consultant). Descriptive analysis found that the proportion of party-affiliated among appointees increased during the Workers’ Party (PT) governments and higher among appointed professionals that were not civil servant. The power-sharing among parties - mainly between the party of the president and the others - varies significantly according to the government. The partisan control over appointees is milder in middle-level and stronger at top-level positions. However, a minority of appointees are party members, even among the top-level bureaucracy. Therefore, we suggest that the political networks go beyond the party affiliations. To understand these networks it is necessary to reassess the role of party politics in shaping the executive agenda and enable reinterpretation of how presidents build and manage the government coalition and the support to their agenda in the legislative arena.

摘要 巴西联邦中层与高层官僚任命人员的数量及其所属党派为何？不同总统任期内，这类公职人员的数量与党派归属是否存在差异？本研究通过构建全新数据库，收录了被任命为高级管理与顾问职位（Cargos de Direção e Assessoramento Superior，DAS）的党派归属公职人员的相关数据，以此解答上述问题。描述性分析结果显示，在劳工党（PT）执政期间，任命官员中的党派成员占比有所提升，且非公务员身份的任命人员中该占比更高。各政党间的权力分配格局——主要体现为执政党与其他政党之间的权力分配——随政府任期存在显著差异。对任命人员的党派管控在中层职位中相对宽松，而在高层职位中更为严格。但即便在高层官僚群体中，身为党派成员的任命人员仍占少数。据此我们认为，政治关联网络的范畴远超党派归属本身。若要理解这类网络，需重新评估政党政治在塑造行政议程中的作用，并重新解读总统如何构建与管理执政联盟，以及如何在立法场域争取对其议程的支持。