ABSTRACT
We argue in this essay that it would only be possible to understand the transformations of public administration today from a close look at the development of capitalism at different times of its neoliberal stage, with its history and theoretical and practical implications. For the development of the argument, we problematized the transformations of neoliberalism in its new version in the 21st Century, with the shift from the anthropological principle of Homo Economicus to Homo Redemptoris, or entrepreneurial man, by incorporating new theoretical matrices. Such redirection is part of a series of transformations that are insinuated: regarding the new role that the “entrepreneurial” State should fulfill, as a business facilitator; in the redefinition of the function of Government, which tends to Governance as a central political form; in the creation of non-state public spaces, with the regression of social policies and the advancement of “measures” that address supposed economic freedom; and in Public Administration, understood as a simple manager of contracts networks promoted by governments as a result of private initiative and markets, which seeks to ensure efficiency and effectiveness, that is, situations of profit in particular and accumulation of capital in general. These characteristic traits of the contemporary neoliberal State are intended to continue the strategic construction of a 21st century market society, with drastic ethical implications for dependent countries, especially considering the reality of overexploitation, misery and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. “From below”, that is, from Nuestramérica.
KEYWORDS:
Public Administration; Neoliberalism; Entrepreneurship; State; Government; Market