O papel das agências reguladoras como propulsoras de mudança social

Abstract

The scope of this paper is to check how regulatory agencies play a role in propelling social change, in view of the function of these public entities in regulating con-flicts between the government, regulated entities and users. It starts with the analysis of macro-sociological theories to the study of conflicts and social changes, in order to enquire if the law is product or factor of social change, as well as how the political power influence on social change. From the premise of the new Brazilian state model, based on neoliberal economics and privatizing, regulatory agencies were created, in order to develop mecha-nisms for monitoring public services and economic regulation of public service entities. Aside from the legal and economic issue, this work seeks to study the social role of regula-tory agencies as drivers of social change.