State capacity and utilities regulation in Brazil: Exploring bureaucracy

Different interest groups play a role in regulatory governance. One frequently neglected is the group of professionals that run regulatory agencies and pursue regulatory goals. The objective of this paper is to give “regulocrats” center stage. It interprets data from a survey conducted by Brazilian...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Utilities policy 2017-12, Vol.49, p.116-126
Main Authors: Cunha, Bruno Queiroz, Pereira, Ana Karine, Gomide, Alexandre de Ávila
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brazil
Bureaucracy
Regulocrats
State capacity
Utilities regulation
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Summary:Different interest groups play a role in regulatory governance. One frequently neglected is the group of professionals that run regulatory agencies and pursue regulatory goals. The objective of this paper is to give “regulocrats” center stage. It interprets data from a survey conducted by Brazilian institutions, shedding light on the major preferences of the “regulocrats”, and on how they go about implementing policy and interacting with other actors. Data is combined with a state capacity perspective so as to elaborate on the findings. The paper concludes by articulating an idea of a particular kind of hybridism in the Brazilian “regulocracy”. •A statist kind of bureaucracy in the area of utilities regulation has had distinct effects in Brazil, resulting in hybridism.•Autonomy figures can be contradictory because regulocrats' views on the singularity of their job may play a great role.•Private sector gets a far greater degree of attention by the Brazilian regulocrats than the rest of the public sector.•“Developmentalist” governments would be more likely to generate political interference in the eyes of the regulocrats.
ISSN:0957-1787
1878-4356
DOI:10.1016/j.jup.2017.06.004