When autonomy is necessary for performance: Brazilian public defenders’ offices

Abstract

Public Defender’s Offices (PDOs) are responsible for providing legal assistance to citizens in situations of social and economic vulnerability. These organizations litigate directly against the state to guarantee the provision of public services and prevent government abuses or deviations. Therefore, these organizations require autonomy to fulfill their mission. This work analyzes the relationship between autonomy and performance in Brazilian PDOs. The work tests the perception of the impact between autonomy and performance of Brazilian PDOs. A survey was carried out with bureaucrats from 27 Brazilian PDOs, and the data was analyzed through structural equation modeling. The variables observed include, in addition to performance and autonomy, availability of resources, competencies, and accountability. The results point out a perception that PDOs must be autonomous and free from political influences to perform their mission properly. The bureaucrats’ skills and accountability were identified as relevant factors for the organizations’ performance. However, there was no significant relationship between resource availability and perceived performance. The contributions of this study include obtaining evidence of empirical validity to measure the constructs “autonomy,” “availability of resources,” “skills,” and “responsibility” and their impact on the performance of PDOs.

Defensorias Públicas, Democracia E Acesso À Justiça Na América Latina

“…No Brasil a atuação coletiva se coloca como reflexo da autonomia política inexistente nos demais países, mas em relação à autonomia financeira e orçamentária, essas não parecem guardar relação com eficiência e capacidade de auto-organização das Defensorias Públicas, visto que a única que possui tais características é também aquela que menos alcança seu público-alvo, o que se alinha ao apresentado na tese de doutoramento de Bernardo Oliveira Buta (2020), no sentido de que autonomia não se relaciona necessariamente com eficiência.…”