Public Service Concessions in Post-2016 Brazil: Continuities and Changes in the Role of the State in the Privatization Process

The concessions of public services have multiplied in Brazil in recent years, as a result of the Investment Partnership Program (Law 13.334/2016), which aims to expand and strengthen the interaction between the state and the private sector through partnership contracts and other privatization measures. According to data from the Federal Government, 193 projects have been completed, of which 106 are in transportation, 47 in energy, and 11 in sanitation. Despite the progress in the privatization process, there is no consensus on its results. Internationally, there is a growing trend of re-municipalization of essential services (MCDONALD, 2018), either through the acquisition of shares from private partners, as in the case of the French energy company (EDF), or through the termination of contracts, such as in the sanitation sector.

This project aims to broaden the understanding of public service concessions in Brazil through sectoral case studies—energy, mobility, and sanitation—resulting from the PPI. First, it seeks to map the privatizations that have occurred since 2016, in light of the concept of neoliberalization and its understanding as a geographically uneven and trajectory-dependent process (BRENNER, PECK, & THEODORE, 2012).

Next, the project proposes to analyze, based on ongoing privatization case studies, the results achieved and/or expected in these sectors, comparing them to outcomes from privatization processes prior to 2016. The hypothesis, supported by the literature, is that concessions of infrastructure and regional and urban services may lead to social and territorial fragmentation (GRAHAM, S.; MARVIN, S., 1994; 2001), due to the threat to tariff affordability, among other aspects related to the differences between public and private sector logics, which can weaken the constitutional pact aimed at reducing inequalities.