Methodological and theoretical approaches to policy dynamics studies. Brazilian project on the comparative agendas project perspective

Abstract

The internship research project is directly linked to the postdoctoral project that aims to map, monitor and analyze the input and output issues in the policy agenda over the three decades of Brazilian recent democracy (1986-2016). This research design, known by the term "policy dynamics", is fundamentally developed by researchers who study policy agenda, and assumes that the policy attention is a scarce resource and, at the same time, it is a necessary tool for policy-making process. The mapping is performed by encoding some government attention indicators, which measure the frequency with which certain topics appear in the speeches, texts, laws and actions of the executive, legislative and, also, the annual authorized budget. Since it is held in a longitudinal perspective, retrieving data from thirty years of democratic history, divided into six governments, this methodology allows monitoring and comparing the priorities of governments over the years, and also allows to compare the preferences in acting the two powers (Executive and Legislative). As a result, it is expected to produce a robust analysis able to point the trajectory of different public policies in the policy agenda over time and highlight similarities and differences in the priorities of the six governments that comprise the analyzed period this international stage research project intends to improve the theoretical and methodological studies directly in the source of greater production of studies on agenda and on policy dynamics. Headquartered at the University of Texas at Austin, the CAP - Comparative Agendas Project is an international project with twenty two member countries that use the same theoretical and methodological framework to study the dynamics of public policies in their countries and in a comparative perspective. In this project different analysis tools are used for the formation of database and analysis of policies over time.The regular postdoctoral project funded by FAPESP "The Dynamics of Public Policies in Brazil After Redemocratization (1986-2016)" is an elemental part of the Brazilian Policy Agendas Project, a Brazilian team that makes up the Austin-based Comparative Agendas Project under the main responsibility of Bryan Jones. Thus, the main gain of this internship is the follow-up and information exchange on the application of theoretical and methodological approaches to the research of policy dynamics. The CAP headquarters in Austin annually receives researchers from several countries that are part of the comparative project that seek theoretical and methodological improvement, which makes the experience extremely important for the internationalization of the Brazilian project. The University of Texas has become a world reference in agenda studies, policy dynamics and the application of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory. Being able to be part of this team, for a year, improving the knowledge of analysis tools, ways of collecting data, theoretical updates, directly from the source that most produces public policy analysis studies under the perspective of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory is undoubtedly the largest gain from this project. (AU)