Logics of action in the Brazilian bureaucracy - the case of the INCRA

Abstract

In order to assess the most prevalent logics of action in the Brazilian land agency, INCRA, we focus on the administrative processes of development and education partnerships, management reports, control bodies, documents of many superintendencies, and ethnography of bureaucracy in two of the 30 superintendencies. Were build typologies and evaluate the actions, discourses, and loyalty chains of strategic groups in the dispute arena. As a result of the overlapping of non-universalistic logics of action -like neo-patrimonialism, clientelism, team spirit -with universalistic logics, we observe a low delivery of goods and services to society. Despite a discourse emphasizing a lack of personnel and resources, the settlement titling, an institutional priority that doesn't need a lot of resources to be completed, shows the management difficulties. In order to change this situation, a better understanding of the action logics that inform them is necessary. This article tries to bring to light the hidden mechanisms of bureaucratic practice.