Abstract
In this article, we explore the changing relationship between social movements and the Workers' Party government, by looking at appointments to upper echelon positions in the Ministry of the Environment between 2003 and 2013. Our examination of the professional and political biographies of 147 appointees demonstrates that over the period, fewer social movement actors and more public servants were nominated. We suggest that this change did not result only from transformations in the political preferences of the Workers' Party government. It also resulted from an increase in the absolute number of permanent employees, which made the government less dependent than in the past on the technical and political capacities of civil society actors.
Keywords:
environmental movement; government appointments; professional trajectories; state; Workers' Party