Governance and public transparency: the Brazilian case

Abstract

Aiming to provide an overall assessment of the impact of the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil (“CFRB” - which is in effect since 1988), in the construction of a Democratic State of Law, over the past 30 years, this article investigates how the institutional improvements achieved took form, the transformation of the State's role in the enforcement of human rights and individual guarantees, and the changes that took place towards a democratic political culture, both from the perspective of the citizen relating to the State and the citizen relating to the State's external oversight body (“TCU” - Federal Audit Court). In this sense, this article highlights the circumstances in which the governance of the Federal Executive Branch has been formed in the past thirty years, in what pertains to its oversight, i.e., by analyzing some of the institutional arrangements obtained and the practices adopted in search of greater transparency and wider accountability for the public affairs. In this period, it is possible to assert that there has been progress in the oversight of the activities of the federal government, with a more institutionalized, direct and easier access by all Brazilians to the information of public entities, on the other hand there are not any consolidated or conclusive information regarding the quality of the information received by the citizens.