Neoliberal bureaucracy and the new functions of the norms

Abstract

Bureaucratization has been one of the most criticized processes by neoliberal discourses but it has not disappeared or faded away. It has just evolved and focused on different targets. Thus from the principle of the legitimately constituted authority linked to period of social-democratic governance, there is a transition to a new exchange of interests and resources between the public and private spheres, legitimized by higher efficiency and profitability for all the partners and legislated through a set of rules that enhances entrepreneurship in the private sector. Changes in the approach of government intervention imply a substitution of public policies aimed at building a new productive and social fabric, which will turn into monetary policies, human resources training and mobilization, and tighter control on social demands. These policies, however, do not represent a de-bureaucratization or a more horizontal public management, but rather a new bureaucratic reason, where the existing rule of law contributes to a new governmentality, where the market prevails above the social.