Introduction

The political, social, economic and administrative changes that Brazil underwent in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to expansion of the policy analysis field. The advent of federalism and social policy decentralisation contributed to public policy receiving greater attention not only from sectors of government and social movements, but also from academic institutions. In that period, technical and scientific papers addressing public policies proliferated in universities and social research institutes, heightening the influence of this scientific production on government policy actions. In other words, the changes that have taken place in Brazil in the past two decades have contributed to shaping expertise proper to public policy and have broadened the spectrum of actors involved in producing it.

The pattern of policy analysis in Brazil has been strongly influenced by literature on decision-making processes, especially the neo-institutionalist literature, which focuses on how government structures and political behaviour shape public policy models. In the Brazilian case, analysis tends to be approached largely in terms of government institutional structures, including here the corresponding constitutional arrangements, to consider the type of regime, federalism, separation of powers, the role of the judiciary, the composition of Congress vis-a-vis the executive and so on, all in the context of the re-democratisation process and reorganisation of the electoral system at the time. Such studies usually attribute considerable weight to institutions, but make little room for the political and social actors involved in the policy process, such as state managers, private organisations, non-governmental organisations, social movements, stakeholders and academia, although the international policy analysis literature acknowledges the importance of these actors, in addition to the macro institutions, in public policy production.

This chapter analyses the contribution of one specific actor that has proved paramount in shaping Brazilian public policy: the academic community, represented here by certain university centres and applied social research institutes. The main purpose is to ascertain what kind of policy-oriented production is performed in academic institutions and to what extent its products influence government decisions. Can academia be said to figure as one more actor in Brazilian policy networks? Can academia be said to be an important actor in policy networks? Put succinctly, analysis of policy networks seeks to understand the processes surrounding policymaking and to identify actors outside the circles responsible for offering such policies, even if they are interconnected in numerous ways in a vast communication network.