Resumen de The role of the Brazilian Congress in defining public social policies

Fábio de Barros Correia Gomes, Ricardo Chaves de Rezende Martins

• The analysis of the role of Congress in defining public policy matters to the debate on the characterisation of legislatures in a spectrum that ranges from the ‘transformative’ to the ‘arena’ type (according to the typology of Polsby). This paper, related to the Brazilian case, considers definitions relevant to the areas of education and health. On education, this study presents an analysis of the content of the legislative proposals of parliamentarians and two case studies, which discuss policy definitions of funding and quality assessment. On health, this article presents an analysis of related legislative proposals and especially those that resulted in funding rules. These studies suggest that Congress in Brazil has an important part to play in defining public policies, acting either as a transforming agent or as an arena for debates. The Brazilian Congress seems to have been, at the same time, active, reactive, collaborative and innovative. This finding leads to the conclusion that the Brazilian Legislature must be placed at an intermediate level between the extreme types of Polsby’s categories; this position is compatible with the ‘coalitional presidentialism’.