Public administration reform and State careers: The case of experts in public policies and government management in the federal Executive Power

Aiming to analyze the way how recruitment based on the idea of "technical competence", was incorporated in the Brazilian public administration after the 1995 administrative reform, this paper investigates the career of expert in public policies and government management. Among all public administration careers, that of expert in public policies and government management (EPPGM) is an exemplary case, since its creation brings the idea of constituting a stable bureaucracy in face of discontinuities in government, able to prepare and manage public policies in a continued flow, something which justifies studying it. Through various sources related to the career evolution, the profile, and training of these managers, and their distribution in the federal Executive Power, we demonstrate that the very training of these public officials ended up undergoing government interferences according to government guidance and that allocating these EPPGMs to jobs of Superior Management and Advisement (SMA) of the federal Executive has reconciled meritocratic principles with a certain relaxation of appointments, restricting, in theory, the spaces for political patronage.