Bureaucratic Impartiality of Legislative Officials in Times of Political Turbulence: The Brazilian Case

Drawing on an ethnographic study of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, this research explores how the expectation of impartiality among permanent parliamentary officials is shaped by their professional expertise and the relationships they established with politicians and the public. Based on the author’s 21 years as a legislative official, ten of them as a journalist in the Directorate of Communications, and two years of systematic observation during the production of an ethnographic documentary on women parliamentarians, this case study develops four analytical themes. First, the performance of non-partisanship examines how officials actively construct impartiality as a rhetorical legitimacy strategy, including the “strategic ritual” of hearing both sides. Second, expertise as symbolic capital defines professional expertise as a strategy to disseminate specialized knowledge in political field and shows how it is mobilized to gain influence or deflect political pressure. Third, the paradox of proximity analyzes how daily interaction with politicians simultaneously endangers and enables bureaucratic impartiality, creating constant negotiation over editorial and technical decisions. Fourth, institutional defense in turbulent times examines how impartiality becomes politically consequential during democratic crises, serving as a technical and legal barrier against authoritarianism. The analysis concludes that bureaucratic impartiality is not an empirical reality but a performed and paradoxical strategy: impossible to achieve, yet necessary for legitimacy of the bureaucratic work when political turbulence threatens democratic institutions.