Bringing governments back in: the chief executive and the outcomes of LGBT institutional activism (2003-2014)

Abstract

The recent literature on the relations between social movements and State in Brazil has analyzed the influence of institutional activists that work within the bureaucracy of the Executive branch formulating public policies. It explains the limits and possibilities of their action through the analysis of the particular institutions in which they act. This work presents a comparative analysis of the trajectory and outcomes of the LGBT institutional activism in four government departments of the Executive branch in the federal level between 2003 and 2014. The results show, first, that in spite of presenting different trajectories and configurations regarding the LGBT activism, those offices present a similar decrease in the outcomes of LGBT institutional activism since the first Rousseff administration. Second, the results show that since this administration, the chief Executive started to intervene in those different departments, creating similar obstacles for the LGBT activism operating within them. Considering these data, I argue that the outcomes of the institutional activism are also conditioned by the interventions of the chief Executive its departments. Therefore, it is necessary to “bring the governments back” to the analysis of the relationships between social movements and State in Brazil.

Keywords:
Social movements; Governments; Public policy; Institutional activism; LGBT movement