Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to present the rational and democratic way of administering Brazil. This article summarizes the 10-page article we published on 11/30/2021 under the title How to plan and manage the development of Brazil in a rational and democratic way, aiming at economic, social and environmental progress and the achievement of the social welfare of its population. Initially, it is important to highlight that the rational and democratic way of administering Brazil is justifiable because it will provide the Brazilian nation with the following benefits:
1) The development planning process in Brazil begins with the identification of the needs and aspirations of the population of each State, considering the existing database in each State and the opinion of the population and its representative entities.
2) The needs and aspirations of the population and its representative entities of each state are considered when establishing the goals of the productive and infrastructure sectors of each state, each municipality, the government of each state, the legislative and judiciary of each state, the federal government, the national legislative and judicial system and Brazil as a whole.
3) The goals of the productive sectors and the economic and social infrastructure sectors of each State are established by their representative entities, listening to the companies and public bodies linked to them and taking into account the needs and aspirations of the State’s population and its representative entities. The Target Plan for the productive sectors and for the economic and social infrastructure sectors in each State is prepared by their representative bodies, which must report on their availability of resources to finance it and how much additional resources are needed.
4) The goals of each municipality in each state are established by the municipal government of each municipality to meet the needs and aspirations of the population of the municipality that are identified considering the existing database in the municipality and the opinion of the population and its representative entities, taking into account the priorities of the municipal government, the solution of existing problems in the municipality, the advantage of its development opportunities and the improvement of the organizational structure of the municipal government. The Target Plan for each Municipality in each State is prepared by each municipal government, which must inform about the availability of resources in the municipality to finance it and how much additional resources it needs. The Target Plan for each municipality must be analyzed and approved by the respective municipal councils of each State.
5) The specific goals of the Legislative and of Judiciary of each State are established taking into account the needs and aspirations of the population of the State and its representative entities, the demands of the productive sectors and of economic and social infrastructure in terms of the adoption of new laws that contribute for the development of these economic sectors and of municipalities in the State that contribute to the development of municipalities, as well as the improvement of the organizational structures of the Legislative and of Judiciary. The Targets Plans of Legislative and of Judiciary of each State must inform how much resources are needed to finance them.
6) The specific goals of the government of each State are established taking into account the needs and aspirations of the State’s population and its representative entities, the priorities of the State Government, the solution of existing problems and the use of opportunities for the State’s development, the demands of the productive sectors and economic and social infrastructure in terms of the adoption of tax incentives that contribute to the development of these economic sectors and of the municipalities that contribute to the development of municipalities, as well as the improvement of the organizational structure of the State government.
7) The Target Plan for each State is prepared by the State government based on the goals of the productive sectors and the economic and social infrastructure of the State, the municipalities of the State, of the legislative and the judiciary of the State and the specific goals of the government itself of the State, consolidating in a document all the goals to be pursued in the State. Each State’s Target Plan should inform about the availability of resources from the State government to finance it and how much additional resources are needed. Each State’s Plan of Goals must be analyzed and approved by the legislative assemblies of each State.
8) The goals of the National Legislative and Judiciary are established taking into account the needs and aspirations of the population and of its representative entities of all the States of Brazil, the Target Plan of each State, the goals of the Legislative and Judiciary of each State and improving their organizational structures. The National Legislative and Judiciary Target Plan must inform how much resources are needed to finance it. The goals of the national Legislative and Judiciary will subsidize the establishment of goals for Brazil as a whole.
9) The goals of the federal government are established taking into account the needs and aspirations of the population and its representative entities of all the States of Brazil, the Plan of Goals of each State, the solution of existing problems and the advantage of development opportunities in Brazil, the priorities of the federal government and the strengthening and improvement of its organizational structure. The federal government’s Target Plan should inform how much resources it needs to finance it. The federal government’s targets will support the establishment of targets for Brazil as a whole.
10) The goals for Brazil as a whole are established by the federal government, taking into account the Goals Plan of each State, the goals of the national legislative and judiciary and the goals of the federal government. These goals will support the elaboration of the Target Plan for Brazil as a whole.
11) The Target Plan for Brazil as a whole is prepared by the federal government taking into account the goals proposed for Brazil. At this stage, the federal government would assess the country’s financial capacity to implement the Target Plan for Brazil. The maximum amount of resources that Brazil could assume to implement the Target Plan would be determined. To comply with this limit, the federal government and the national legislature must jointly deliberate on the goals to be considered in the planning horizon and those that should be deferred to the future.
Our proposal for planning and managing the development of Brazil is rational because the planning process is coordinated throughout the country through which each productive and infrastructure sector, each municipality, each state, state and national legislatives and judiciaries and the government federal elaborate Targets plans articulated with each other. During the execution of the plans, there is a process of “feedback” and control of the execution of the Targets Plans of each Municipality, of each State, of the state and national legislatures and judiciaries, of the federal government and of Brazil as a whole to ensure their compliance. Annually, there must be a process of evaluating the performance of the 10 systems that make up the country (economic, social, science and technology, education, health, energy, transport and communications infrastructure, environmental, regional development, foreign trade and political and moral) to identify the need for improvement in each of them. Only in this way will it be possible to plan and manage Brazil in a rational way to promote its economic, social and environmental development. The proposed planning is also democratic because it places as a starting point meeting the needs and aspirations of the population and its representative entities of each State, which serves as a basis for establishing the goals of the productive and infrastructure sectors of each State, of each municipality, each state legislative and judiciary, of each state, of the national legislature and judiciary and of the federal government, which are incorporated in the Target Plan for the Municipalities, the States, each state legislature and judiciary, the federal government, the national legislature and judiciary and the Brazil as a whole.
It is worth noting that our planning proposal for Brazil considers that the target plans for the productive and infrastructure sectors of each state, each municipality, each state, the federal government, state and national legislatives and judiciaries, and of Brazil as a whole should be prepared for a horizon of 5 to 10 years being reassessed and reviewed annually. During the execution of the plans, there must be a process of “feedback” and control of the execution of the Target Plan of Brazil, of the Target Plan of the federal government, of the Target Plan of the legislative and of the national judiciary, of the Target Plan of each State, the Target Plan of the legislatives and judiciaries of each State, of the Target Plan of each Municipality and of the targets plans of the productive and infrastructure sectors of each State that consists of the permanent evaluation of the accomplishment of the approved goals with the continuous correction of the deviations between what was planned (goals) and what was accomplished (result of the execution of the Plan). The central planning agency of the federal government and the planning agencies of each state and each municipality must systematically assess whether the result obtained with the execution of the Plan corresponds to the established goals. If the results obtained correspond to the established goals, the process of executing the target plan continues and, if it does not meet, a decision must be made in order to increase the level of resources for the execution of the plan and/or correct flaws in its execution to ensure its compliance. The control of the activities of the plans must be carried out continuously.
The rationalization of public management in Brazil is completed with the process of evaluating the performance of each of the country’s 10 main systems: 1) economic; 2) social; 3) science and technology; 4) education; 5) health; 6) energy, transport and communications infrastructure; 7) environmental; 8) regional development; 9) foreign trade; and, 10) political and moral. The evaluation of the performance indicators of these 10 systems must be carried out annually. The evaluation of the performance of each one of the 10 systems of the Country requires the establishment of a standard of performance desired for each system and the existence in all its levels of government of a structure of planning and control that allows to evaluate if the results obtained in the development society correspond to the desired performance standard to systematically make the necessary corrections and achieve the desired goals or objectives.
It is important to highlight that our proposal is also rational, because it helps to avoid overlapping actions between the different levels of government and eliminate waste of resources resulting from the lack of coordination between governments at all their levels in the promotion of national development. Our proposal also contributes to the country’s governability, made possible by the deep articulation established between the federal government, the state governments, the state and federal legislatives and judiciaries, the municipal governments, the productive sectors and economic and social infrastructure and, above all, the population. Our proposal respects the autonomy of states and municipalities and of the productive and infrastructure sectors in establishing their goals. Our proposal radically differs from the existing practice in Brazil and in the world, which is characterized by governments establishing their government plans from top to bottom without the participation of the population or the productive sectors and economic and social infrastructure, municipalities, states and legislatures and state and national judiciaries, with the exception of Scandinavian countries where there is an effort to promote the development of society in search of social welfare with the convergence of the interests of the government, the private sector and the population. However, all over the world, in general, governments and productive sectors and economic and social infrastructure develop their plans decoupled from each other, disregarding the needs and aspirations of their population.
What our proposal demonstrates is that it is possible to make profound changes in the way Brazil is planned and managed. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that there is: 1) a rational process of strategic planning coordinated throughout the country through which each productive and infrastructure sector, each municipality, each state, state and national legislatures and judiciaries, the federal government and Brazil as a whole have articulated targets plans; 2) a process of “feedback” and control of the execution of the targets plans of each Municipality, of each State, of the state and national legislatures and judiciaries, of the federal government and of Brazil as a whole to ensure their fulfillment; and 3) a process of evaluating the performance of the 10 systems already mentioned that make up the country to identify the need for improvements in each one of them. Only in this way will it be possible to plan and manage Brazil in a rational way to promote its economic, social and environmental development.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 82, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019) and A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021) .
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