Entre o político e o técnico, reforma administrativa, esfera pública e educação: um estudo sobre a experiência recente de Juiz de Fora - MG

Abstract

This study analyses the administrative reform implemented by the city of Juiz de Fora (state of Minas Gerais, Brazil) between 2000 and 2004, and the effects this reform had upon the social sphere of the city, specially the managerial changes that took place in the educational field. Our general aim is to analyze the relationship between the processes of administrative reform and the construction of the public sphere. We focus on the broadening and strengthening of this sphere taking the implementation of organizational changes proceeding from the contemporary debate about the State reform as a starting point. For this purpose, we established as analysis platform the reformation process in Juiz de Fora. Hence, we choose a qualitative research approach whose methodological strategies were the documentary analysis associated with a set of interviews with actors that formulated and/or lived the abovementioned process. The first chapter provides theoretical support for the study, and is dedicated to discussing the public sphere, the Theory of the State and the Crisis of the State, specially the developments during the past three decades. Starting from Habermas' scenario of rise and transformation of the public sphere, we discuss its current pertinence as a democratic theory, pointing to the need for critical reading and updating of its link to the theme of public management and to mechanisms of administrative innovation. The second chapter begins by contextualizing the reform of the State in Brazil and its unfoldings in national education. After this, we consider the administrative reform of Juiz de Fora, highlighting the municipal education, strongly affected by the heterodox and matrix-like character of this process. The analysis we made led to the understanding that, although based on a theoretical and legal construct which tried to associate managerial aspects to a participative process, the reform's legacy was more strongly observed in the techno-normative field, in connection with procedural elements that are responsible for some aspects of administrative modernization; and that the innovation capacity of the administrative reform was obscured, as participative possibilities gradually lost strength during the implementation of the reform.