Entre agenda retórica e agenda decisória: uma análise dos discursos e das ações governamentais (2003-2016)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the Brazilian government's agenda from 2003 to 2016, more specifically the rhetorical and decision-making agendas of the heads of the executive branch during this period, in an attempt to answer the following question: what is the relationship between the public policy themes present in the main presidential speeches and the themes that became the subject of legislative actions initiated by the President of the Republic himself from 2003 to 2016? In other words, what do presidents say in their speeches and what do they do in terms of laws? The time frame covers the first two terms of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and the two terms of Dilma Vana Rousseff (2011-2016), two presidents belonging to the same political party who were consecutively re-elected, consolidating the longest period that the same party has been at the head of the Presidency of the Republic since re-democratization; and who governed at a time when the country's quality of democracy reached peak levels, according to the Varieties of Democracy platform. The data analysis was based on discursive and normative documents, including government programs, inaugural speeches in the National Congress and at the parlor and annual messages sent to Congress to investigate the rhetorical agenda; and regulatory decrees, provisional measures, ordinary bills and proposals to amend the Constitution to investigate the decision-making agenda. The results indicate the prevalence of thematic continuities between the Lula and Dilma governments in their rhetorical and decision-making agendas, with some occasional changes. However, differences were observed in the way each used the discursive moments and legislative powers at their disposal, which influences the levels of congruence between the agendas and may express differences between the presidential profiles.