“The ministry is a problem machine…”: profiles of former health ministers in Brazil (2002-2015)

Abstract

Historical study with a qualitative approach that aimed to describe and analyze the profiles revealed by the career trajectory of former health ministers in Brazil between 2002 and 2015. Interviews were carried out with six former ministers and used Toulmin’s argumentative model as a theoretical basis -methodological analysis of the ministers’ arguments, in defense of a certain management profile. Among the main observations that made up the profiles, the following stand out: minister with no experience in health who used his expertise in the economic area; minister responsible for good management, who made the greatest contribution to the SUS post-Constitution; minister with a previous technical career in health, but with a predilection for acting politically; non-labelable minister, but with management marked by balance and consideration; minister with a technical-political role, without concern for political projection; and last manager radically committed to the SUS and democracy. It is concluded that the adoption of the Toulmin model was crucial for the systematization of these profiles inserted in the narratives produced which, among other characteristics highlighted, consider the technical and political performance profile to be complementary – and not exclusive.