Direito administrativo em transformação: mutações do conhecimento jurídico no estado das políticas públicas

Abstract

This article examines the structural transformation of Brazilian Administrative Law in light of the growing centrality of public policies and governance within the contemporary constitutional state. It is grounded on the hypothesis that the reconfiguration of the State’s operational pattern — from isolated administrative decisions to institutional arrangements structured around cycles of formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation — produces epistemological mutations in the legal knowledge of the discipline. It argues that administrative legality can no longer be exhausted in the formal validity of individual acts, but must incorporate analysis of institutional coherence, regulatory rationality, and the implementation capacity of public policies. The study adopts a normative-analytical approach, combined with institutional reflections derived from teaching experience in undergraduate and graduate law programs. It demonstrates that traditional administrative doctrine remains fundamental, yet requires functional reinterpretation in response to the complexity of a State oriented toward public policies. The article concludes that this transformation directly impacts the teaching of Administrative Law, demanding the overcoming of classificatory manualism and the incorporation of institutional analysis and decision-making responsibility oriented toward constitutionally adequate implementation.