Between Continuity and Disruption: An Analysis of the Federal Public Security Programs of the FHC, Lula and Dilma Governments
National Security Plan; Urban violence; Public policy.
Despite the emphasis that the theme of urban violence has taken on since the redemocratization of brazilian society, since then, we have witnessed a succession of experiences that point more to rupture than to continuity in terms of public security policies. From FHC to Dilma, passing through two terms of Lula government, federal public security programs have been formulated, implemented and, quickly, abandoned or modified. The present study aims, based on the use of qualitative research techniques and
methods, to understand how and why these policies have failed to achieve their primary objective: the control of violent crime. The institutionalist and public policy literature raises a set of hypotheses to explain this phenomenon. In this research, we will especially explore the cooperative limits between federal actors (federal government, states and municipalities) as a hypothesis to explain the factors that interfere in this kind of "failure succession" and the weight of social and historical structures on the functioning of security institutions. The purposes of this research are also to identify coalitions and
disputes within the political field of public security, the clash between security paradigms, as well as their interconnections, advances, setbacks, traditional and/or reformist, repressive, preventive and access to citizenship biases. We will analyze these issues from the cases of the federal public security plans of the FHC governments (1995-1998; 1999- 2002), Lula (2003-2006; 2007-2010) and Dilma (2011-2014; 2015-2016).