Movimentos sociais e políticas públicas: como o hermetismo setorial afeta a institucionalização

The interactions between the state and civil society in the production of public policies are the subject of intense theoretical debate in the literature. The relationship between institutionalization processes and the fundamental characteristics of policy sectors remains insufficiently understood, particularly regarding the factors that enhance or limit civil society's influence when engaged in these processes. We argue that even in successful cases of institutionalization, some policy sectors are marked by sectoral hermeticism — a concept developed based on contributions from historical institutionalism and public policy literature to illuminate a specific configuration of the constitutive characteristics of policy production and the actors endowed with institutional resources to drive this process. The article proposes two analytical models: the first defines the constitutive dimensions of sectoral hermeticism and the conditions that favor its continuity or transformation; the second examines the possibilities for change in policy sectors characterized by such hermeticism. This model explores three possible pathways for institutionalization trajectories driven by civil society actors, either within the constraints of hermeticism or by reforming it. In the former case, the paths of adjusted institutionalization and demarcated institutionalization are possible; in the latter, the path of reformative institutionalization is only viable when preceded by a sweeping sectoral reform capable of reshaping the sector's status quo.