DEVICES AND DISCOURSES: NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AND THE EVALUATIVE STATE

Abstract

This study analyzes the emergence, consolidation, and expansion of the Evaluative State paradigm in Brazil, linking it to the logic of New Public Management (NPM) and managerial state reforms. Following Brazil's redemocratization, economic crises, and the restructuring of the state apparatus, educational assessment evolved from a secondary instrument into a central mechanism of regulation, coordination, and governance, shaping school practices, pedagogical decisions, and public policies. The study demonstrates how managerial rationality and the discourses of efficiency and accountability shape subjectivities, shift the debate on educational quality toward measurable indicators, and establish forms of accountability at a distance, thereby consolidating education as a strategic field of state intervention. The analysis is grounded in a post-structuralist perspective, particularly in Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory, understanding educational policies as discursive practices whose meanings are permanently contested, articulated, and reconfigured across different historical and institutional contexts. Finally, the study discusses the limits and tensions of the Evaluative State, highlighting how evaluative rationality is recontextualized in state-level assessment systems, such as the Basic Education Assessment System of Paraíba (SIAVE), and pointing to future research on the effects and contradictions of educational assessment in Brazil.