Environmental Licensing in Brazil: Revisiting the Borders between State and Civil Society

If the complex interactions between social and state actors generate a fluid understanding of the distinction between State and social movements, the difference of “challengers” and “challenged” postulated by the classic social movement literature is relativized. This research aims to identify what determines the boundaries between State and society. We maintain that there are structural differences between State and civil society, nevertheless, this separation is considered flexible because of the different political projects that transcend it. In order to understand the boundaries between State and social movements, it is necessary to consider the distinct political projects supported by actors inside the State, considering their institutional context. Through a qualitative case study of an institutional conflict, we have identified two main political projects supported by bureaucracy members of IBAMA – the Brazilian national institution for environment licensing –, and analyzed the institutional constraints they faced to defend their ideas.