Exposing the Unfinished Business of Building Public Administration in Late Democracies: Lessons from the COVID‐19 Response in Brazil

• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Author: Jose A. Puppim de Oliveira,Evan M. Berman
• Date: 01 November 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13415

Exposing the Unfinished Business of Building Public Administration in Late Democracies 1183

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 81, Iss. 6, pp. 1183–1191. © 2021 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13415.

Jose A. Puppim de Oliveira

Exposing the Unfinished Business of Building Public

Administration in Late Democracies: Lessons from the

COVID-19 Response in Brazil

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed fundamental flaws in the design of public administration in late

democracies. While much writing to date focuses on the initial and vital responses to COVID-19, the magnitude

of this event also furthers insights into the risks of incomplete institutional designs and practices, such as the case

of Brazil, an example of the administrative flaws in late democracies. This article is not a critique of responses to

COVID-19 per se, but an examination of these considering democratization processes that include state-building and

the need for another push in administrative and political reforms. Shortcomings in state-building, which existed before

COVID-19, inflict heavy costs on society and, if left unaddressed, add to the costs of future disasters and unraveling of

support for state and democratic institutions.

Evidence for Practice

• Crises like COVID-19 are an opportunity to further improve public administration systems in late

democracies.

• Poor design prevents effective intergovernmental cooperation as a rule, not exception.

• Performance and accountability requirements for political appointees could improve performance.

• Managerial, political, and constitutional reforms are needed to improve the public management systems in

many late democracies.

This article examines inadequate public

administration practices in late democracies

and how the COVID-19 pandemic

has highlighted these long-standing risks. Late

democracies are countries that became democratic

in the second part of the twentieth century, typically

after periods of dictatorships and colonization, some

as recent as the late 1980s or 1990s (e.g., Brazil and

Indonesia). Many late democracies have structurally

or constitutionally fragmented—and sometimes

conflicting—administrative governance systems,

as well as systematically inadequate performance

accountability and poor public leadership

(Pertiwi and Ainsworth 2020; Tarverdi, Saha, and

Campbell 2019). While several mature democracies

have also shown issues with their COVID-19

responses (Bouckaert et al. 2020; Kettl 2020a),

the above factors have inflicted additionally heavy

costs, especially notable in low- and middle-income

countries such as Brazil, India, Pakistan, and South

Africa (World Bank 2021). We argue that another

push is needed to address these public administration

shortcomings in late democracies. If left unaddressed,

these shortcomings increase the costs of future

disasters and further undermine public support for

state institutions.

As many countries became democracies in the last

decades of the twentieth century, initial optimism was

great that democracy, along with increased education,

would build up an effective public administration.

However, many late democracies inherited small or

inadequate public administration systems, often from

colonial powers in Asia and Africa (e.g., Malaysia

and Nigeria) or repressive, military regimes in Latin

America (e.g., Brazil and Argentina). Several decades

later, only a few of those countries achieved highly

functional public administration systems that can

deliver good public services under democratization.

The few that did often have a strong prior base in

authoritarian development regimes (e.g., Singapore

and South Korea; see de Avila Gomide 2021;

Haque and Puppim de Oliveira 2021a). Indeed,

more-authoritarian regimes can perform better

in some governance indicators compared with

partially democratized countries (Tarverdi, Saha, and

Campbell 2019). Thus, an important question is:

What are the main problems in state-building that

remain for many late democracies?

The outbreak of COVID-19 exposes several of

those problems and offers an opportunity to revisit

unfinished reforms in several countries. The first part

Evan M. Berman is a professor of public

management at Fundação Getulio Vargas

(FGV EAESP), Sao Paulo, Brazil. His areas

of expertise include public performance,

comparative and international public

administration, and human resource

management. He is recipient of the Fred

Riggs Award for Lifetime Achievement

in International and Comparative Public

Administration and other awards of the

field. He is visiting professor at Fudan

University/Institute for Global Public Policy

(Shanghai), Chengchi University (Taipei) and

University of Indonesia/FIA (Jakarta).

Email: evan.berman@fgv.br

Viewpoint Article

Jose A. Puppim de Oliveira is a professor

at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EAESP

and FGV EBAPE), Brazil, with extensive

experience in managing research programs

and transdisciplinary projects, particularly

involving the developing world. He is visiting

professor at the Institute for Global Public

Policy (IGPP), Fudan University (Shanghai).

His research and policy interests concentrate

in patterns of governance, institution

building and policy implementation, looking

at how global and national institutions are

interlinked to steer governance and action.

He is editor-in-chief of Public Administration

and Development (Wiley).

Email: jose.puppim@fgv.br, japo3@

yahoo.com

Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EAESP and FGV EBAPE)

Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EAESP)

Evan M. Berman