Institutionalizing Equity: Administrative Instruments, Public Bureaucracies, and State Action in Brazil

Abstract

This article analyzes Ordinance No. 149/2024 of the State Planning Secretariat of Piauí (SEPLAN/PI), which established the Permanent Committee on Gender, Race, Diversity, and Inclusion, in order to examine how low-level administrative instruments may contribute to the institutionalization of equity agendas within public bureaucracies. Drawing on a documentary and interpretive approach, the study examines the ordinance's normative architecture through the lenses of feminist institutionalism, state feminism, intersectionality, and the anthropology of the state and bureaucracies. It argues that the analytical significance of the document lies not merely in its normative content but in its capacity to formalize responsibilities, create organizational coordination mechanisms, and incorporate equity as a legitimate concern of state action. The analysis identifies institutionalization strategies based on permanence, organizational mainstreaming, representativeness, and administrative monitoring and reporting mechanisms. At the same time, it highlights limitations associated with hierarchical dependence, implementation conditions, the absence of robust accountability mechanisms, and challenges related to the operationalization of intersectionality. By shifting attention to administrative instruments often overlooked in the literature, the article contributes to debates on state feminism, equity institutionalization, and the everyday production of state action, demonstrating how normative commitments are translated into organizational structures within public bureaucracies.