The Public Service and its new crises

The notion of public service for Brazilian administrative law has always been endowed with a natural fog, which involves dogmatic discussion based on the uncertainties of the elements and the scope of the concept, extending into spaces where new execution models continue to foster doubt. The debate on the distinction between public service and economic activity is once again on the agenda of administrative law, as the economic crisis influences adjustments aimed at the privatization of state-owned companies such as the Brazilian postal and telegraph company and the Rio water and sanitation company of January. In the reflections set out in this essay, we propose premises to face the “new crises” of public service, elucidating issues that compromise the efficiency of the State's administrative function, in points relating to its universality and adequacy. It is an invitation to doubt and conjecture many answers to the same question. What are the risks of Brazilian public service?