State, Public Policy and Sustainable Development in Amazonia

Ford Foundation Research Programme — Cycle I
Programa de Pesquisa “Estado, Políticas Públicas e Desenvolvimento Sustentável na Amazônia”

1997–1999 · Fundação Ford · NAEA/UFPA · Public Policy · Sustainable Development · Amazonia

State · Public Policy · Political Intervention · State Organization · Regional Development

Project Overview

The research programme Estado, Políticas Públicas e Desenvolvimento Sustentável na Amazônia examined the role of the state and public policy in Amazonia and their implications for sustainable and regional development.

Conducted at NAEA/UFPA with support from the Fundação Ford, the programme brought together several interconnected research projects concerned with state organization, public policies and the institutional conditions of development in the Amazon region.

The programme was conducted from 1997 to 1999.

Within this broader programme, my research focused on the state and public policy in Amazonia, particularly on how public policies are produced and implemented, the modernization of the executive apparatus, and the possibilities and limitations of state intervention.

Research Context

The programme situated questions of sustainable development in relation to the role of the state and public policy in Amazonia.

This perspective directed attention toward the institutional and administrative processes through which political programmes and development objectives are formulated and implemented.

Project 2 — State and Public Policy

Within the overall research programme, I coordinated Project 2 — Estado e Políticas Públicas, including the subproject Estado na Amazônia.

The research investigated the organization of state structures in Amazonia and the production and implementation of public policies. Particular attention was given to the modernization of the executive apparatus and to the possibilities and limitations of political intervention. The research also examined negotiation networks as emerging instruments for implementing complex policies, including environmental protection and regional development.

Empirical and analytical work included research concerning:

the organization of state structures in Amazonia;
the production and implementation of public policy;
modernization and reform of the executive apparatus;
possibilities and limitations of state intervention;
regional development policies associated with SUDAM and FINAM;
tourism policy;
administrative reform.

Taken together, these areas allowed the project to examine political intervention through the institutional and administrative processes involved in policy formulation and implementation.

Research Approach

The project combined theoretical analysis with empirical research on public institutions and policies.

Research activities included bibliographical research, documentary and data collection in public institutions, research travel and field stays, theoretical analysis informed by social systems theory, and discussion of findings within the research team.

The combination of empirical research and theoretical analysis informed by social systems theory provided a framework for examining the possibilities and limitations of political intervention.

My Research within the Programme

My role was the coordination of Project 2 — Estado e Políticas Públicas / Estado na Amazônia within the broader programme coordinated by Maria Célia Nunes Coelho.

This work continued a research trajectory concerned with regional development while shifting greater attention toward the political and administrative conditions under which development policies are formulated and implemented.

A central concern was the relationship between political objectives and the institutional structures through which attempts at intervention take place. Research on regional development policy, administrative reform and sectoral policies provided different empirical perspectives on this problem.

The project also incorporated theoretical analysis informed by social systems theory in examining state intervention and public policy. This theoretical dimension became relevant to my subsequent research on the possibilities and limitations of political intervention and regional development.

Contribution to My Research

The programme represents an important stage in the development of my research on public policy, political intervention and regional development.

Earlier research had examined regional development primarily through economic transformation and resource extraction in Amazonia. Research during this period increasingly brought state organization, public policy and political intervention into the analysis.

The project contributed to a shift from analysing development strategies and policy objectives toward examining how political intervention operates, through which institutional structures it becomes possible, and why its consequences cannot be understood solely in terms of stated political intentions.

These questions subsequently remained important in my research on public policy, organizations, resource governance and regional transformation.

Subsequent Research Cycle

After completion of this first research cycle, the Fundação Ford supported a distinct continuation of the programme. Beginning in 2000, State and Municipal Public Management — Structures of Power, Participation of Social Actors and Environmental Policies shifted the empirical focus toward municipalities, local power structures, participation and environmental policy.

This subsequent programme was conducted under my coordination and is presented separately on this website.

State and Municipal Public Management →

Ford Foundation Research Programme — Cycle II · 2000–2005

From State and Public Policy to Regional Development in World Society

The programme was not conceived within the later theoretical framework of Regional Development in World Society. Its relevance for the current research programme is therefore retrospective.

The research nevertheless contributed to a problem that remained important throughout my subsequent work: the relationship between political intervention and regional transformation.

From the perspective of my current research, the project can be reconsidered as an early empirical engagement with the question of how political decisions and public policies become connected to historically evolving regional configurations and acquire regionally differentiated consequences.

The project's attention to state institutions, administrative structures and processes of policy implementation is particularly relevant in retrospect. It provides an important historical basis for the current RWS interest in organizations and in the processes through which political decisions, knowledge and institutionalized expectations become regionally consequential.

Retrospective analytical relevance:
Political intervention · Public policy · Institutional structures · Organizations · Implementation · Regional differentiation

These questions form part of the longer research trajectory that eventually contributed to the development of Regional Development in World Society.