O Sistema Único de Assistência Social sob o impacto do novo regime fiscal: uma análise do federalismo cooperativo na gestão da política pública

Abstract

The research on the theme of Brazilian federalism and its relationship with the public social assistance policy, aimed to analyze federalism from the perspective of intergovernmental relations occurring within the Tripartite Interagency Commission – (CIT) of the Unified Social Assistance System –(SUAS), as a permanent forum for intergovernmental negotiation and pacting, in the face of the tensions imposed by the new fiscal regime instituted by Constitutional Amendment nº 95/2016. This is an interdisciplinary research, anchored in the theoretical approach of historical neoinstitutionalism, focusing on the institutional arrangements that influence political decision making and shape political actors in defining their strategies in the field of Social Assistance policy, through the operational categories of path dependence, increasing returns, critical antecedents, and critical junctures. The research has a national scope and temporal delimitation in the post-Federal Constitution of 1988 until the year 2022. Considering the choice of a conjunction of qualitative and quantitative approaches, the case study was chosen as research strategy. The methodological path was carried out with a diachronic comparison of the temporal contexts of the Social Assistance policy: before and after the adoption of the new fiscal regime. The research collection instruments were bibliographical, documental research classified in primary, secondary and communication sources, and field research. The empirical collection was divided into direct and non-participant observation of the CIT meetings with a previous script, and semi-structured interviews with managers who are part of the CIT. Eight interviews were carried out remotely, preceded by the reading of the Free and Informed Consent Form and consent for audio recording. To analyze the material collected in line with the chosen methodology and the operational categories of the method, we adopted data triangulation. The set of quantitative and qualitative data on the federal budget for the Social Assistance policy show that the institution of the new fiscal austerity regime and measures of de-funding, contingency of resources and underfunding of SUAS, adopted by the federal entity as of 2019, triggered a process of de-institutionalization of the system and rupture of the commitments agreed upon in the II Decennial Plan for Social Assistance, with significant changes in intergovernmental relations in the field of policy management. And allied to qualitative data they confirm the thesis that the institutional arrangement of the SUAS Tripartite Interagency Commission - CIT, with its form of representation of the interests of subnational entities at the center of political decision-making, and its political actors assuming the position of veto players, play a strategic role in opposing the process of deinstitutionalization of the public Social Assistance system.