Impact Assessment of the Brazilian Access to Information Act - An interdisciplinary methodological approach

• Autor(a) principal: Fortunato Araújo, Taiana
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Leopardi Mello, Maria Tereza
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Estudos Empíricos em Direito
• Texto Completo: https://reedrevista.org/reed/article/view/128
• topic: lei de acesso à informação; eficácia; efetividade; direito e políticas públicas; avaliação; access to information law; efficacy; effectiveness; law and public policy; evaluation

This article aims to discuss the potential efficacy and effectiveness of the Access to Information Law (LAI) in Brazil, considering it not as an isolated legislation, but as part of public policy for transparency and accountability. For this, we use an interdisciplinary approach that combines elements of the discussion on the role of law in public policy and an analysis of the various possible meanings of the legal concept of efficacy (taken as element that combines the legal world with the real world). We have reviewed international assessment studies on access to information laws in other countries; with regards to Brazil, we analyze a few monitoring and assessment studies about LAI implementation made by the Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU)/Comptroller General of the Union, and the (still rare) academic literature on the subject. We conclude that the legal efficacy of LAI depends, in first instance, on the full adhesion of the State, which has to enact specific regulations without which the LAI does not function well. In a second instance, legal efficacy has a necessary, but not sufficient condition, a change of conduct by public managers, responsible for LAI`s implementation. This piece of legislation would have complete efficacy if it reached its primary goal of providing access to public information by increasing governmental transparency. Effectiveness, on the other hand, refers to the multiple uses of the information provided by citizens, both for individual objectives as well as governmental accountability.