Budget transparency: reasons of mismatch between the Brazilian states

Abstract

Starting from the theoretical premise that transparency is a fundamental principle for democratic consolidation and that this differs significantly between Brazilian states, this study identify why these mismatches occur, once they are all under the same legal framework. Therefore, it designed, based on the recommendations of international organizations, a map of the transparency of the Brazilian states where hundred items were analyzed in budget reports. Then interviews were conducted with budget managers and courts of accounts councilor to identify possible causes of the mismatch. The results contradict partly to national and international literature on the subject by pointing out that current revenue, surplus and political parties are not reasons for the gap. Factors that were not highlighted in the literature and were considered by respondents were: rating, crises (institutional and financial), political will, the legal enforcement, the press, collective decision-making and specialized bureaucracy.

Keywords
Budget transparency; Democracy; Government control