In most countries, public management positions are of free appointment, being historically used as accommodation mechanism of political interests, still marked by high staff turnover. In a context, the defense of a more... [ view full abstract ]
In most countries, public management positions are of free appointment, being historically used as accommodation mechanism of political interests, still marked by high staff turnover. In a context, the defense of a more professionalized public sector was marked by arguments in favor of structured careers and entry by public tender rather than by meritocracy – present inside of the directorships system; that is, public officials should be chosen by technical criteria. According to this view, the staff entered by means of state exam should be the future elite of the public sector, by reservation (exclusive or majority) of leadership positions the careers of members – inspiration from the French model. But even after this quest for greater professionalization of the public sector through the state exams, recruitment servers to occupy leadership positions has not necessarily considered meritocratic recruitment criteria.
However, Puón (2011) states that the public management function expansion process has emerged and developed unevenly and heterogeneously in different countries. One of the difficulties for this consolidation would be associated with political resistance to allow the professionalisation of public administration, especially in the case of introduction of meritocratic and open systems, i.e. the entry of professionals from the private sector in high public office. Importantly, however, that this political resistance seems little justified, as when Weber (1971) problematized the relationship between politics and bureaucracy, he stated that the relationship between the elected official and bureaucrats is not complete separation, but of complementariness and conflict; complementary because the bureaucracy provides a professional character to politics, through meritocracy and technical knowledge, adding a more rational social organization; conflictive because the bureaucracy has values and interests that may be incompatible with democratic values or political interests.
This resistance causes, in many cases, the selection of the public officer considering political criteria only, not taking into account the origin and previous experience or their managerial skills, so that the selected server has difficulties understanding the state of operation. This lack of understanding by the ruling may cause tensions between those and the bureaucracy of the agency, the insularity of this, that can take action for its own benefit; and even the non-performance or improper performance of public policies could be caused by this ignorance and tension.
From the literature on the relationship between politicians and bureaucrats, the literature on entering the public sector, focusing on the ticket of the senior leaders, this article aims to present the model adopted by Portugal in the entry of their leaders and by Minas Gerais (Brazil) in joining the expert career in public Policy and government Management (EPPGG), showing that both the permanent bureaucracy of public administration and the selection of non-permanent members can take public leadership positions in meritocratic way, considering its origins, experiences and management skills.
B1 - Bureaucratic Leadership and Public Sector Management in Developing and Transitional C
