Power and tradition:lineages of authority in public

Abstract

The Delegado Geral (chief of police) is the highest position within the Civil Police and is responsible for organizing the entire institution and its staff. However, as it is a commissioned role, where the head of the state executive power decides to whom the activity is assigned, there are no technical criteria to limit such a choice. That facilitates the influence of family elites in the selection process, allowing them to retain power and wealth through occupying high positions in public administration. Since the 1990s, the relevance of genealogies and the insertion of relatives in public positions has received more national studies to identify how family groups transfer privileges and benefits to the next generations, adapting the patrimonial model, which is inadmissible in the Democratic State of Law, where equality of conditions and impersonality must prevail. Aiming to verify whether the ex-chief of police active between 2013-2014 was part of any dominant family, we used prosopography as a research method. To investigate the genealogy and biography of the subject were investigated through documentary, historical, and archival research in the media, the World Web, the Public Library of Paraná, and genealogical research websites. The object of research is part of a family of Lebanese immigrants prominent in communication and literature, who, through marriage ties, joined the traditional family of Lapa/PR, the Lacerda – Braga. The extended stay in strategic positions within the state public security structure may be due to integration into traditional lineages, enabling the inheritance of high positions in the present, as elites aim to safeguard power and wealth among their peers.