Administrative law, democratic guarantee and efficiency: the search for the necessary balance

Abstract

The article addresses the existing conflicts in administrative law between two of its fundamental dimensions: the legal-guarantee dimension and the managerial dimension. It exposes how the potential arising from the process of constitutionalization of administrative law operated by the Federal Constitution of 1988 were, in part, blocked with the advent of managerialism, which began to guide the administrative debate from the 1990s onwards. It examines how the exacerbation of managerial ideas, from the influx of neoliberal ideology and the advance of a privatization dynamic on public administration, has compromised the balance that should exist between the guarantee and managerial dimensions of administrative law. The approach employed combines a bibliographical study of reference works, especially in the analysis of constitutional theory, with the examination of documents, especially in the part pertaining to managerial reform.