The document discusses the need for political, state, and public administration reforms in Brazil. It argues that the current system is not truly democratic and elections are controlled by wealthy economic groups. It proposes establishing a network state to better integrate federal, state, and local governments. A new constituent assembly is needed to construct a new democratic political and administrative system based on ethics and development for all citizens. Key reforms include replacing the presidential system with a parliamentary system, empowering voters to remove elected officials, and allowing citizens to vote on important issues through plebiscites.

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THE POLITICAL, STATE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORMS
REQUIRED FOR BRAZIL
Fernando Alcoforado *
The Republican system in force in Brazil is, in fact, a democracy only for the rich and
corrupt. In this system, the elections are a sham because they are controlled by the
power holders who make that the majority of the candidates in the service of the big
companies win, as was demonstrated by Lava Jato Operation that investigates crimes of
corruption. It is a game of cards marked because national and international economic
groups have always boosted the big parties by financing their million-dollar elections.
Companies and banks have always elected their "representatives" at the various levels
of legislative power to pass laws in favor of the powerful on the basis of vote-buying
and lobbying, and still gets millions of state contracts. The assault on public coffers by
politicians and parties and the occupation of the governmental machine by the parties in
power became commonplace in Brazilian political life.
Representative democracy in Brazil manifests clear signs of exhaustion by discouraging
popular participation in government decisions, reducing political activity to mere
electoral processes that recur periodically in which the people elect their representatives
who, with a few exceptions, after the elections pass to defend interests of economic
groups as opposed to the interests of those who elected them. The current situation in
Brazil puts in check not only the constituted powers, but also representative democracy.
In this system, elections are a sham because they are controlled by the holders of capital
that make win the majority of candidates in the service of large companies. It is a game
of cards marked by national and international economic groups pushing the big parties
to finance their millionaire elections.
Not only does the Brazilian political system no longer meet the needs of the nation. The
same occurs with the organization of the Brazilian State, which, thanks to its
inefficiency and ineffectiveness contributes to its growing inability to confront national
problems. The State in Brazil is inefficient and ineffective because the rulers do not
make strategic planning, do not formulate strategies of development and do not implant
structures compatible with the strategies. It is evident the fragility of the organizational
structures of the federal, state and municipal governments. It is flagrant the lack of
integration of the federal, state and municipal governments in the promotion of national,
regional and local development. Associated with this fact is the existence of inadequate
organizational structures at each of the federal, state and municipal levels that make the
effort in these instances of government unfeasible. The lack of integration of the various
instances of the Brazilian State is therefore total, causing the action of the public power
to become chaotic as a whole, thus generating diseconomies of all order.
1. The political reform required by Brazil
The increasing depoliticization and disbelief of the population in relation to political
institutions is a great mark of our time. Direct elections in Brazil, once seen as a path
towards democracy, are now reduced to the maximum stage of political participation
allowed for the purpose of legitimizing the elect. As there are no effective alternatives
for change in play, the meaning of the vote is diminished and the election campaign is
reduced to a mere choice of candidates for political office.

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Most candidates for elected office in Brazil are not driven by the public interest, that is,
to promote political, economic, and social changes for the benefit of the population. The
occupation of elective positions in the executive branch and in the parliament becomes a
means for the elected to provide services to the financiers of their electoral campaigns,
enrich themselves and obtain the existing stewardships. How to change this sad reality?
There is only one way: to build a truly representative democracy in Brazil.
A truly representative democracy is one in which the elect defends the interests of the
population that elected him and informs about actions systematically of his mandate to
his party and to the electorate. The parties, which now function as mere electoral
bureaus, and the electorate should be empowered to dismiss the elected official's
mandate in the event of noncompliance with the party program and its electoral
promises and misconduct. In addition, crucial and fundamental decisions to the interests
of the population should be taken directly by the people through plebiscite and / or
referendum and not only by the executive power or parliament. The political reform to
be carried out in Brazil should have as its main objective the implantation of a true
representative democracy.
With political reform, there should be appropriate criteria for the parties to choose from
the list of candidates for elected office in order to prevent depredatory figures from
appearing to the electorate. The parties, which now function as mere electoral bureaux,
should have the power to initiate the process of annulment of the elected official's
mandate in case of noncompliance with the party program and its electoral promises as
well as misconduct and that the decision on cassation or not be in charge of the
electorate itself through a plebiscite.
The voter should exercise as much as the political parties the social control of the elect,
triggering the institutional mechanisms necessary for the punishment of those who have
eventually betrayed the party program and the interests of the electorate pronouncing on
their cassation or not through a plebiscite. In addition, decisions that are crucial and
fundamental to the interests of the population should be taken directly by the people
through plebiscite and / or referendum and not only by the executive power or
parliament as it currently occurs.
2. The reform of the State and Public Administration required by Brazil
The organizational structures of government at all levels in Brazil are outdated. It is
unacceptable for the federal, state, and municipal governments superimpose efforts, as
is still the case today in many sectors, by exhausting the meager resources available to
them and not to act on regional structures in which all federal, state, and federal
agencies are present all federal, state and municipal bodies interested in its
development. In order to solve this problem, it would be necessary to have the federal
and state governments take on global, regional and sectoral planning and regulatory
functions on an integrated basis, while municipal governments, regional development
agencies and public companies would also do the executive part in an articulated way.
The model of integrated management of the public sector in Brazil would contradict
what prevails today, in which the federal, state and municipal governments are
autonomous in their deliberations and actions, and politically reactive to the idea of
integration. In order to make government structures work in an integrated way, it is
necessary to establish the so-called Network State. The Network State presupposes the
implementation of a Network Structure, or a Network Organization, which is a type of

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organizational macrostructure that would function according to a circular or star-shaped
organization chart, at the center of which is the main organization, that is, the federal
government. Below the federal government would be the state governments, the
municipal governments and public companies. The objectives and operational plans of
the components of the network structure must be established jointly by all its members.
The operation of this type of organization would be based on modern computer and
telecommunications systems that would allow the management and control of all
processes.
Operationally, the members of one network structure would connect horizontally to all
others, directly or through those around them. The democratic functioning of a
networked organization is measured by the real freedom of information circulation
within it and, therefore, by the lack of censorship, controls, hierarchies or manipulation
in that circulation. In addition to coordinating the actions of all levels of government in
each regional instance, the network structure will make it possible to reduce the state's
operating costs and, consequently, to minimize the tax burden on taxpayers. As for
public companies, the relationship between their managers and the bodies to which they
report must be based on management contracts. Through these contracts, public
companies would commit to pursuing pre-established goals of efficiency and
effectiveness. If they are not successful they would be removed from their posts.
Rethinking state reform also requires a break with the still dominant paradigm that
favors the role of technocracy in government management to the detriment of the
manifestation of sectors of civil society. It is not enough more and more concentration
of the technical power, as it happens in the present time. It is necessary to take into
account the political dimension of State reform, including the participation of civil
society sectors through public hearings, plebiscites and referendums in decision-making
on the most relevant issues. The emphasis on politics requires, fundamentally, the
strengthening of the State's connections with society and with representative
institutions, also expanding collection and accountability procedures, means of external
social control, transparency and publicizing acts of the government.
3. How to carry out the political, State and Public Administration reforms in
Brazil
There is no other way to change the reality lived by Brazil in the economic, political and
administrative fields, except with the creation of a new National Constituent Assembly
to construct a new radically democratic political and administrative order based on
ethics and development for the benefit of all the population. It is not enough to carry out
a mere political reform as it has been advocated. One of the objectives of the future
constituents would be to propose a new structure of government based on the
parliamentary system to ensure the governability and stability of political institutions in
Brazil with a renewed Federal Supreme Court acting as moderating power. It is clear
that if there were parliamentarism in Brazil, it would be easier to get out of the current
political impasse by replacing a National Congress and an incompetent government like
the present with the convening of new parliamentary and presidential elections.
In order to construct a new radically democratic political and administrative order based
on ethics and development for the benefit of the whole population, the new Constituent
Assembly to be convened to re-order national life would have as its objective: 1) to
replace the presidentialist regime by the parliamentarian regime; 2) to institutionalize

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the district vote and the reduction of the number of parliamentarians and the end of their
stewardship in the federal, state and municipal parliaments; 3) to establish a ten-year
mandate for members of the judiciary who would be chosen by a high-level commission
elected by the population; 4) to implant the unicameral system with the end of the
Senate; 5) to promote the reform of the State and Public Administration to make them
efficient and effective; 6) to ban political parties and parliamentarians committed to
corruption; 7) to form new political parties after the new Constituent Assembly; 8) to
establish that candidates for elected office should have a "clean record" and elected
candidates should inform theirs actions to their parties and to the electorate
systematically; 9) to establish that voters should exercise as much as political parties the
social control of the elect, triggering the institutional mechanisms necessary for the
punishment of those who eventually betrayed the partisan program and the interests of
the electorate pronouncing on their cassation or not through a plebiscite; 10) to establish
that political parties, which today function as mere electoral bureaux, should operate
with a clear political-ideological position; 11) to establish that voters should exercise as
much as political parties the social control of the elect, triggering the institutional
mechanisms necessary for punishment of those who may have betrayed the interests of
the electorate by pronouncing their cassation or not by a plebiscite; 12) to establish that
decisions on matters of fundamental interest to the population should be the object of a
plebiscite or referendum; And, 13) to convene new general elections in the Country.
*Fernando Alcoforado, member of the Bahia Academy of Education and the Brazilian Academy of
Letters of the Rotary - Bahia Section, engineer and doctor of Territorial Planning and Regional
Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and consultant in strategic
planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of
Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem
Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000),
Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de
Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento
(Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos
Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the
Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012),
Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo
(Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016) and A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), among
others