Brazilian Government Acts as a Change Agent
August 9, 2006
Sometimes, citizens become government change agents; leaders who innovate to improve their government, and thus their fellow citizens. At other times, the government itself acts as the change agent, pushing innovation through creative methods to achieve the same goal. Although many might consider the latter case to be highly unusual, I recently found an article featuring Brazil's government as an example. More specifically, Brazilian legislation passed a law that directly supports innovation, by means of three sets of financial incentives:
- Incentives for building and strengthening partnerships between universities, research institutes and private companies;
- Incentives to encourage the participation of universities and research institutes in the innovation process;
- Incentives for promoting innovation within private companies.
What is interesting about this new legislation is that it seeks to create a triangle of innovation and cooperation amidst three major areas; potentially producing amazing results. One side is the government, which supports and facilitates a much needed connection and sharing of creativity between the business area and the research/education arenas. The other two edges are the business and education spheres, which would benefit through tax deductions or funding, and be able to hire or train more highly educated workers to yield improved results.
The legislation is not only creative in terms of content, but also in the way that the Brazilian government decided to refine it. The article mentions, "the law was drawn up with public consultations, primarily through posting a draft version on the Internet and asking for comments from different segments of society before it was discussed at public meetings." Including the public in such a decision suggests possible ways in which average citizens can be more integrated with government decision making.
Although it has received criticism on how such incentives will be fully implemented and enforced, the legislation certainly shows some steps in the right direction. Like any change, positive results could take some time. However, the methods used to create this legislation and it’s eventual could potentially be emulated in other countries, including our own. Uruguyan social scientist Judith Sutz puts the requirements for the government’s success as a change agent in perspective:
"To increase their contribution to development through the production and distribution of knowledge, universities in developing countries need to transform themselves into 'developmental universities…But to achieve this, other participants, such as industry and government, must also be prepared to take on new responsibilities. No ready-made model exists to guide these changes; they will require both creativity and the willingness to engage in thoughtful dialogue, both within and outside universities."
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