State-owned enterprises between public services and economic activities

• Autor(a) principal: Coutinho, Diogo R.
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Mesquita, Clarissa Ferreira de Melo, Nasser, Maria Virginia Nabuco do Amaral Mesquita
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Direito GV
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/revdireitogv/article/view/79428
• topic: State-owned enterprises; Political economy; Public services; Economic activity; Law n. 13.303/2016; Empresas estatais; Economia política; Serviços públicos; Atividade econômica; Lei n. 13.303/2016

This article revisits the trajectory of state-owned enterprises in Brazil to better understand their nature, their mission and the contemporary dilemmas they face. Based on a political economy approach, it provides a critical analysis of the crystal- ized public services versus economic activity dichotomy as a constitutive element of the state-owned enterprises legal regime, and also seeks to investigate whether Law n. 13.303/2016 overcomes such dichotomy, creating at the same time new dilemmas, challenges and “side effects”. It concludes that the Brazilian Supreme Court and the new statute have not adequately reflected changes through which state-owned companies have gone, perpetuating a mismatch between law and the political economy environment. The Supreme Court defers to a consolidated view, not adequately reflecting the “metamorphoses” gone through by the state-owned enterprises. With this respect, Law n. 13.303/2016 has its strengths and weakness- es. It is right by stating that it applies to both entities delivering public services and to those carrying other economic activities. However, since it fails to clearly relin- quish the dichotomy at stake, the path for the Supreme Court to perpetuate its con- solidated case law remains open. Moreover, the new statute it is currently subject of a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality, which may also limit its effectiveness