Abstract
This article presents a short biography of Celso Furtado, and his life as a civil servant between 1943 and 1964. Despite being recognized for his contributions to the field of economics, Furtado started his professional and academic career (as researcher and professor) in the field of public administration. In 1943, Furtado was hired as organizational assistant at the Public Service Administration Department (Dasp), after a competitive selection process. Twenty years later, he was appointed as Minister by President João Goulart for the administration 1961-1964. During the period covered in this study Furtado worked in the Economic Commission for Latin America (Ecla), in Santiago/Chile, from 1949 to 1957. After that, he returned to Brazil to become director at the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDE), where he created (and directed) the Superintendency for the Development of the Northeast (Sudene). Furtado was the main disseminator of Ecla’s ideas in Brazil, which proposed a centrality of the State in the promotion of development and the consequent need for a new profile of the public manager to conduct this process. The period was marked by the dialogue between economic development and development management, which led to a linkage of economic development to the development of the technique and art of administration. In addition, he was one of the thinkers whose theoretical and practical thoughts have supported the consolidation of the big state-owned companies in Brazil. Studying the history of Celso Furtado as a public manager is a source of important reflections about the government’s role in the economy and about the role of public managers.
Keywords:
Celso Furtado; Dasp; Ecla; Ecla-BNDE Commission; Sudene