Collor "fell because he did not have a good relationship with Congress."

Alagoas 247 – In an article published in the newspaper O Globo this Wednesday (April 3rd), journalist and writer Merval Pereira, based on a study by three physicists from Cornell University, Peter Klimek, Rudolf Hanel, and Stefan Thurner, who analyzed the ministerial composition of 197 countries, states that the downfall of former president Fernando Collor is related to his poor relationship with Congress, and not to the corruption he was accused of. This study concluded that the most efficient governments have up to 22 ministries; since Tancredo Neves in 1985, through Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Itamar Franco, this number has only increased in Brazil, probably "reflecting the growing need for political compositions, coupled with the unbridled pursuit of minutes of electoral propaganda."

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The limit of inefficiency.

Since President Dilma Rousseff's main qualification is managerial excellence, at least according to official propaganda, let's analyze her government in light of the organization of its administrative structure, now that yet another secretariat with ministerial status, the Secretariat for Micro and Small Enterprises, has been created. There are 24 ministries, plus ten secretariats linked to the Presidency and five bodies with ministerial status, totaling 39 ministries, a record in the country's history, in addition to a size that falls within what is known as the "inefficiency coefficient," defined in a study, already reported in this column, by three physicists from Cornell University, Peter Klimek, Rudolf Hanel, and Stefan Thurner, after analyzing the ministerial composition of 197 countries.

The study concluded that the most efficient governments have between 19 and 22 members. Brazil would be at the same level of ministerial inefficiency as Congo (40); Pakistan (38); Cameroon, Gabon, India and Senegal (36), among others. Businessman Jorge Gerdau, who acts as a consultant to the government to improve its management, lost patience with the situation and said, in a recent interview, that "everything has its limit. When stupidity, or madness, or irresponsibility goes too far, suddenly, a cleanup happens. We are probably at the limit of that period."

According to Gerdau, the country could have only half a dozen ministries, which are the ones that President Dilma actually controls directly. The other "ministers" are rarely with the president, and some have never even been granted an audience by her in these more than two years of government. Napoleon Bonaparte agreed with Gerdau and said that at high levels, one cannot efficiently command more than seven subordinates.

The number of ministries in Brazil has increased since the election of Tancredo Neves in 1985, according to political scientist Octavio Amorim Neto of the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio, a scholar of government formation, and his survey is worth republishing as it reflects the growing need for political alliances, coupled with the frantic pursuit of airtime for political propaganda. Before Tancredo, the Figueiredo government had 16 members, in addition to the five military ministries: Navy, Army and Air Force, SNI (National Information Service) and EMFA (Armed Forces Staff). Once elected, one of the first things Tancredo Neves did was increase the number of ministries to accommodate in his coalition a series of factions from the PMDB and the former PDS, transformed into the Liberal Front.

José Sarney's first cabinet, inherited from Tancredo Neves, had 21 ministers, with three new ministries: Culture, Agrarian Reform and Development, and Science and Technology. The government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso... color He radically reduced the number of ministers to ten, eventually reaching twelve before the impeachment, which fuels the theory that he fell because he did not maintain a good relationship with Congress, and not because of the corruption he was accused of.

When Itamar Franco took over, during the crisis of the deposition of colorOne of the first things he did was expand the number of ministries to 22, with the creation of the Ministry of the Environment. The size of the ministries remained around this number during Fernando Henrique Cardoso's government, although he also created three more portfolios: Planning, Defense, and Sports, and a series of secretariats to accommodate political factions. Starting with the Workers' Party governments, especially after the 2005 crisis, the creation of ministries skyrocketed: it jumped from 21 portfolios in the last year of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's government to 34 in Lula's first term, 37 in his second, and now 39 under Dilma.