Efeitos dos arranjos federativos sobre o desenvolvimento do ensino primário e secundário, na Argentina, e fundamental e médio no Brasil

Abstract

The thesis seeks to contribute to studies about the effects of federalism on universal and equitable policies, in order to constrain or favor the adoption and expansion of these policies. As a form of political organization of the State, characterized by the territorial division of power, federalism is considered by institutional studies as a factor that may explain the origin and development of public policies. This relationship is complex and reciprocal, contingent on time and space, may have different effects in different contexts, historical periods and countries and varies according to the federative arrangement of each policy. The purpose of the thesis is to carry out a comparative study of education policies at the primary and secondary levels, in Argentina, and fundamental and secondary, in Brazil, in order to identify and analyze the possible effects of federative arrangements on the adoption, development and educational outcomes, considering the their historical trajectories and the configurations of their recent designs. The analysis of the trajectory of formation and expansion of the federative education arrangements, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, allow us to understand how their configurations were triggered in recent arrangements in the post-redemocratization period, since the 1980s. Then, from the characterization of the general structure of federalism, in the political-institutional dimension, and the federal arrangements of educational policies, in the administrative, legislative and fiscal dimensions, in redemocratization period, the aim is to analyze its possible effects on the educational outcomes, in terms of universality and equality among Argentine provinces and among Brazilian states. Thus, the analysis aim to contribute to the studies on the effects of federalism on universal and redistributive policies, in order to constrain or promote the adoption and expansion of these policies. The universality of education is analyzed in terms of the population's literacy and access to education, measured, respectively, by illiteracy rate and net schooling rate. Equality is analyzed in terms of efficacy (school dropout rate), efficiency (age-grade distortion rate) and quality (Aprender, in Argentina, and Índice de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica (IDEB) in Brazil). Indicators of relative expenditure on education and expenditure per student are considered to analyze the priority of investment in education and the fiscal capacities of the federal units. Socioeconomic conditions are also analyzed – the Subnational Human Development Index (SHDI), the Gini coefficient and the percentage of poor people – as factors external to federalism that may have affect educational outcomes. The study showed that federalism had implications for the development of educational policies, in such a way that the Argentine and Brazilian federative arrangements presented some characteristics that favored and hindered universality and equality in education. Federalism, far from being an obstacle to the adoption and development of universal policies, contributed to the expansion of education. However, the historical trajectories of education policies, the democratic political context and socioeconomic conditions appeared as factors with the greatest impact on educational outcomes, mainly in terms of equality between the federative units.