Legislative and Executive branches in the Covid-19 pandemic: the emergence of a critical federative juncture?

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the role played by The National Congress in formulating policiesas a response to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil. We adopted the theoretical perspective of Historical Neo-institutionalism, particularly the critical juncture concept. We hypothesized that the deliberate coordination void produced by the Federal Executive Power in leading actions to combat the pandemic could boost the Congress legislative formulation activity. This move would expand the possibilities of approving an agenda of projects aligned with state and municipal positions. Such dynamics could drive a critical federative juncture, changing the characteristics of the Brazilian federative model built in the last three decades. We analyzed the regulations approved in the first legislative period of the National Congress (February to July 2020) within the spectrum of the first wave of the pandemic. The results show that Congress obtained greater autonomy in policy formulation vis-à-vis the Executive. This position resulted in the approval of an expressive set of matters in the federative field, characterizing the emergence of a critical juncture, albeit of uncertain sustainability, depending on the behavior of several variables.