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This paper analyzes the policy dismantling process in the Brazilian innovation system since mid-2010. The research describes how this policy change has been undertaken and explains the strategies deployed and major causes. The study is theoretically grounded in the debate of policy dismantling, meaning changes that result in cuts, reductions, or even abolition of budget, rules, capacities, and instruments of a governmental area. A mixed-methods approach, both quantitative and qualitative, is employed. First, it examines the dismantling process in the last years, focusing on the budget execution patterns of the major policy instruments and agencies in charge of innovation at the federal level. The research relies on the stakeholders' perception by conducting semi-structured interviews with experts regarding strategies, rationale, reactions, and effects. The empirical findings show the dismantling occurs in both dimensions: density (number of tools reduced) and, mainly, the intensity (budget cuts), varying according to government areas. The interviewees highlighted the prevailing strategy as active dismantling, in which the fiscal austerity aggravated by the COVID-19 crisis, an ideological shift in the government coalition, policy particularities, and a low level of prioritization in innovation by the domestic business community are the main factors that affect the politicians' preferences to dismantle. Finally, the process seriously affects the national innovation system, such as the loss of bureaucratic and policy capacity, brain drain, and lag in technology, productivity, and consequently, in the country's economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the effects of extractive informal institutions on the horizontal accountability process in a developing democracy? This paper presents evidence about the harmful effects of extractive informal institutions on horizontal accountability within subnational governments in Brazil. After three decades of free and competitive elections, the institutional design of oversight institutions for state governments has hardly changed. We explore the hypothesis that more extractive informal institutions, measured by the level of income inequality, is associated with decreasing transparency levels. Given its extensive social, political, and economic diversity embedded in an overall centralized formal institutional framework, Brazil provides an appropriate setting to test the hypothesis that extractive informal institutions responsible for increased income inequality can undermine horizontal accountability in new democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes public sector projects and programs in Brazil that received external financing from multilateral and bilateral agencies at the federal, state, and municipal levels between 2000 and 2020. The analyzed data were collected in the COFIEX Panel of the Brazilian Ministry of Economy, categorized, and presented in this article in a contextual way, aiming to represent the first overview of this object for studies on Public Administration in the country. An important instrument of the International Development Cooperation System, International Financing for Development follows international organizations" agendas and guidelines that have changed throughout history. Thus, in addition to exploring the main creditor sources, sectors, and federal units of destination of International Development Financing to Brazil, the article verified how the characteristics of international financing received between 2000-2015 and post-2015 reflect the agendas and guidelines of International Development Cooperation of the respective periods, namely, the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030). As a result, in addition to presenting a pioneering exploratory analysis of the data, it was possible to verify an inflection of external financing received by Brazil after 2015 in the direction of the current agenda and guidelines of International Development Cooperation. Finally, the paper presents directions for future research agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]