Governance in the Brazilian Federal Public Defender’s Office

The Defensoria Pública da União – Federal Public Defender’s Office is responsible for providing access to justice for vulnerable citizens. This agency needs to adopt good governance standards to operate lawfully and responsibly, be accountable, and achieve effective performance. Although socially important, governance in this type of organization has been little studied. This paper identifies and discusses standards of good governance and the relationships between its dimensions and variables at the Federal Public Defender’s Office. The research includes the building and validation of a questionnaire to measure the perceptions of governance, which was used to conduct 14 in depth interviews at the Federal Public Defender’s Office. The results show four factors of governance: Control and Accountability, Social Participation, Strategic Resources and Access to Justice. There were three main observations from this research 1. The public defenders and agency administration staff do not perceive control mechanisms to be part of governance, 2. There is little or no social participation in decision-making processes, and 3. Some working conditions and actions to develop the Public Defenders’ Office personnel are absent. This study contributes to the advancement of literature on the administration of justice, proposes a Governance Scale for the Federal Public Defender’s Office, and reflects on the relationship between performance, access to justice and other dimensions of governance.


Introduction
Organizations in the justice system, such as the Public Prosecutor, Public Attorney, Advocacy and Public Defenders' Office are responsible for initiating the action of the judiciary and, therefore, are essential to the functioning of justice. The Brazilian Public Defenders' Office is the agency responsible for providing free legal assistance to the most vulnerable citizens among the population, providing legal advice, promoting human rights, and judicial and extrajudicial defense. 1 Civil society organizations and the private sector can be seen as alternatives to the state bureaucracy and are important in the delivery of basic services to citizens. There are thus many factors to be considered in the process of modern public governance. 7 The state is the central stakeholder of a system influencing public policies and the success of these policies depends on the ability of public managers to negotiate with several public and private stakeholders. The domination of public policies by networks is a characteristic feature of the governance model in the public sector. 8 The growing importance of this type of arrangement for modern governance emphasizes the highly interactive nature of political processes. 9 Political networks are patterns of interdependent social relations between stakeholders with their own goals and strategies and their interactions result from the sharing of interests. 10 Contemporary governance arrangements include mechanisms for the participation and cooperation of public, semi-public, and private stakeholders in the process of public policy decisionmaking. The interaction between state and society occurs with the aim of producing consensus. 11 Resolving social problems is most effective when various stakeholders are involved. Groups that cause the problem, as well as those affected by the problem, and those who wish to resolve it, should be involved in addressing its solution. 12 Moreover, the combination of resources from both public and private sectors-as well as the continuous process of negotiation between stakeholders from these two sectors-tends to make public policies more effective. 13 Public governance is related to the collective resolution of problems in which the state plays the essential role of intervention and legal ratification, whilst other stakeholders interact in a cooperative way to address resolving problems. 14 The various forms of public governance depend on previous structural and institutional conditions to emerge. First, it is important that power is efficiently distributed in society in a non-fragmented way. Furthermore, there is a need for strong and democratically legitimate public authorities capable of representing the interests of the main social groups involved. Another important condition is authorities having sufficient resources the and capacity to implement the decisions taken. It is also desirable that civil society is strong, functionally differentiated and well organized, composed of citizens with the same rights under the law, and endowed with guarantees and fundamental rights to exercise their citizenship. 15 The dispersion of power and social control depends on the existence and guarantee of citizens' rights, in particular transparency and the disclosure of information about public bodies. Democracy is the key input to better governance. 16 These structural conditions define principles of good governance that are fundamental to the development of this new form of governing that is based on the relationship between multiple stakeholders. The change from a state based on hierarchical command and control relationships to a state characterized by complex patterns of contingencies and dependence 7 Maheshwari, S. R. (2006) Mayntz, R. (2001). El Estado y la sociedad civil en la gobernanza moderna. Revista del CLAD Reforma y Democracia, 21. 12 Ibid. 13 See note 8, supra. 14 See note 11. 15 Ibid. 16 Pereira, L. C. B. (2001). New Public Management Reform: Now in the Latin America Agenda, and Yet... International Journal of Political Studies, on external stakeholders depends on the trajectory of institutional relations specific to each national context. 17 Good governance of public organizations involves the identification and definition of responsibility, effective understanding of stakeholder relations and interests related to resource control and division of results as well as the effectiveness of public policies, the legitimacy of procedures, and their control by citizens. 18,19

Governance in Public Defender's Offices
The Public Defender's Office is a permanent instrument of the democratic regime. This agency is responsible for legal guidance, promotion of human rights, and defending the individual and collective rights of socially vulnerable people. There are 28 Public Defender's Offices in Brazil; one is the Federal Office and object of this study, the other the 27 Public Defender's Offices of the Brazilian states. There is a division of powers between these agencies. The Federal Office acts at the national level before the Federal Justice, High Courts, and administrative bodies of the Union, whereas the States' Offices provide legal assistance in administrative instances and in all jurisdictional levels of the States and may act before the High Courts in cases of judicial appeal. The Federal Public Defender's Office is chaired by the General Public Defender who is responsible for administrative decisions. The General Public Defender also leads the Superior Council, a board composed of nine public defenders. This board is responsible for the normative decisions within the Public Defender's Office. 20 Currently, this Office has offices in 71 locations around the country, from which it serves more than 600 thousand users annually. 21 In the justice system, the concept of governance has mainly been associated with factors such as independence, accountability, access to justice, structure, and strategic resources. 22 In the specific case of the Public Defenders' Office, governance is related to similar factors: organizational resources, strategy, stakeholders, organizational structure, control, accountability, and access.
Organizational resources include the various types of resources controlled by the organization to enable the design and implementation of strategies. An important point in the study of governance is the efficient allocation of resources, which is fundamental for compliance with decisions and achievement of objectives. 23,24 In fact, the central justification for the autonomy and functioning of organizations of justice is precisely the ability to provide resources. 25 The ability to implement plans and strategies is also related to governance. The building of an organization's strategy, with a definition of objectives, setting of priorities, and creation of coalitions with stakeholders, ensures coherence in public policies. 26 The Brazilian Federal Public Defender's Office is seen as an agency with a high level of autonomy, but low levels of capacity. 27 Stakeholder interaction is fundamental to good governance in an intentional, conscious, and deliberate way. 28 The nature of the relationship between an organization and its stakeholders is important in the choice of strategy, since groups or individuals interested in the performance of organizations can influence and be influenced by them, depending on the possession of critical resources. 29 These stakeholders organize themselves into networks of relationships that can influence the delivery of public services. 30 These social networks involve stakeholders of different types-public and private, individual and organizationalthat act in the most varied federative levels and with different scopes of action. 31 The broad representation of stakeholders at the highest level of judicial agencies is a fundamental element of governance for justice organizations. 32 Organizational structure is another factor linked to the concept of governance. It should be noted that an organization itself can be considered a governance structure whose design influences the balance between the power of employees and managers, and also contributes to the control of the principal over the agents. 33,34 It also highlights the autonomy of bureaucracy as relevant in this context, since highly institutionalized political systems have bureaucracies with a high degree of autonomy. However, an appropriate degree of autonomy does not imply that bureaucracies are isolated from society or decision-making processes contrary to the public interest. 35 Mechanisms of control aim to mitigate the potential opportunistic behavior of agents, thereby avoiding risks and inhibiting opportunistic actions. 36 In the public sector, internal measures of administrative control could help to reduce abuses and inefficiencies. 37 This factor is linked to accountability, which covers issues related to transparency, answerability, and enforcement imposed on managers so as to allow control of the principal over the agent. Answerability encompasses two dimensions; one informational, linked to transparency, relating to the agent's reporting on their actions, the other explanatory and related to providing an agent's justification for the motivations behind their actions. Enforcement, in turn, is linked to the reward of good behavior, and punishment of the bad. 38 Justice organizations need a 26 See note 8, and note 5, supra. 27  higher level of transparency and accountability to increase efficiency and performance, and to provide for their independence. 39,40 Access to justice is another essential factor for good governance of the Public Defender. The reason this organization exists is to enable access of the most vulnerable citizens to justice. Governance mechanisms are geared towards producing results that benefit stakeholders in a balanced way. 41 A measure related to the capacity to deliver public services is important; it should not be used as a single measure of governance, but instead combined with others. 42 This dimension is linked to an increase in the provision of legal assistance services through the expansion of the public defender system. 43

Methodology
Governance measures set standards of behaviour for organisations and therefore tend to shape how policymakers see the world. 44 Such measures can be based on secondary data and stakeholder perceptions. There are authors who question the accuracy of governance measures based on perceptions, but as the concept is still emergent for Public Defenders' Offices and there is insufficient data for the construction of a measure based only on secondary data, we used a methodology based on perception in this study. 45 The identification of dimensions of good governance in the Brazilian Public Defenders' Office involved interviews with managers of that agency and content analysis of those interviews. Between May and June 2015, 14 defenders and civil servants of the highest rank of that agency were interviewed, based on a semi-structured script (See Appendix). The number of interviews was defined by theoretical saturation and the contents transcribed and analyzed using categorical content analysis, following the guidelines suggested by Bardin. 46,47 The governance factors for analysis were defined a priori based on the literature and included Organizational Resources, Stakeholders, Control, Access to Justice, Strategy, Accountability, and Structure.
We observed the occurrence of the dimensions in the interviews, their frequency and order of appearance, as well as the association between them. Considering the frequency of dimensions in the interviews, the total number of occurrence of the themes, and the order of occurrence, it was possible to group the dimensions in terms of their relative importance according to the interviewees' perceptions. The most important group included the Organizational Resources, Stakeholders, and Control dimensions. The intermediate group consisted of Access and Strategy and the group of least relative importance included Accountability and Structure.
Some dimensions were observed at least once in all or almost all interviews, such as Control and Access, which occurred in all interviews, as well as Organizational Resources and Stakeholders, which appeared in eleven and ten interviews, respectively. On the other hand, some dimensions, 39  such as Accountability and Structure, occurred infrequently-appearing in only a few interviews. It was also confirmed that the subjects that occurred more frequently in the interviews also contained a greater number of units of records. That is, in addition to being remembered by all or almost all the interviewees, they were stated several times in each interview.
Subsequently, a questionnaire was built. It was composed of items that represented concrete operations and behaviors, through which the dimensions of good governance are expressed in the Public Defender's Office. The items were written according to the following criteria: (a) each item was to be expressed in only one behaviour; (b) the sentences had to be clear and intelligible to the target population; and (c) the item must be consistent with the attribute to be measured. 48 In addition, an effort was made to ensure that the set of all items related to an attribute covered its entire dimension, as Pasquali, 49 Fowler 50 and Gisselquist 51 suggest.
An initial version of the questionnaire with 84 items was built. As the theoretical, semantic, and empirical validation steps were accomplished, the number of items was reduced, so the final version of the scale contained 32 items. The theoretical and semantic validation stages were intended to identify whether the questionnaire represents the governance construct. For this purpose, an analysis was carried out to assess the behavioral adequacy of the attributes, the relationship between items and attributes, their relevance to the theoretical context, and the clarity of the language used. This stage was carried out with nine experts in the field of public administration.
The second validation procedure involved the semantic evaluation of the questionnaire with the target population. Twelve individuals were selected from all strata of the target population and a pilot questionnaire was applied. The understanding of the items was observed and possible doubts of interpretation were discussed. The number of participants was defined during the process, observing the criterion of confirmation of the theoretical saturation point. 52 The time taken to respond to the questionnaire and the difficulties in its completion were also observed.
After these steps the questionnaire was sent between February and March 2016 to public defenders and administrative staff of the Federal Public Defender's Office, using the Google Drive Forms tool. The questionnaire was adequately answered. There were no records with the same score for all items, indicating that the form was filled in seriously. Only one of the records did not respond to any item, which shows that Google Drive has recorded all submissions, even one in which there was not a single response.
The database with the responses to 393 questionnaires was analyzed using the statistical software R (free). The main socio-demographic characteristics of the sample coincide with the Federal Public Defender's Office global workforce profile; namely, the prevalence of young adult males. 53 There is a prevalence of males in the age group of 25 to 34 years. 46% of the sample were public defenders and 54% of technical workers; 54.3% were male and 45.7% female.
In 15 questionnaires, 31 or fewer of the 55 items (56.0% of the questionnaire) were complete, and the pattern indicated that they had been abandoned before completion. After these records have been excluded, the questionnaire with the lowest number of items answered had 34 answers. However, the respondent filled out all the fields of the socio-demographic 48  information and even left a commentary on the questionnaire. That is, there was no evidence that the survey participants left the questionnaire before they had completed all they had hoped to. The presence of outliers was identified. The method used for this purpose was the Mahalanobis distance, which can detect unusual patterns of response. 54 Five outliers were found and excluded from the sample.
In the end, there were 370 questionnaires answered, which corresponds to a ratio of 6.7 respondents per item. This number exceeds the sample standard stated by Pasquali who suggests 5 to 10 individuals per item and at least 200 respondents, and Tabachnick and Fidell who suggest samples of at least 300 participants for analysis of discrimination. Field, Miles and Field clarify that a sample of more than 300 subjects will probably provide a stable factorial solution. 55,56,57 In this database, 41 items had non-response rates of less than 5%. The remaining 14 items had between 5.1% and 9.4% non-responses. The items with the highest percentage of nonresponses belong, for the most part, to the Control dimension. For the definition of correlation and covariance matrices necessary for the analysis, the pairwise method of treatment of missing data was used, in which the data are excluded only from the calculations involving the missing variable.

Results and Discussion
The variables were not distributed normally or homogeneously. However, the violation of these data distribution requirements does not lead to erroneous statistical conclusions, especially if the sample size exceeds five individuals per item, when the distribution of the means tends to normal. 58 In order to avoid any deviation, the extraction method used in the exploratory factor analysis was the Principal Axis Factoring, best suited for samples with non-normal distribution. 59 The Exploratory Factor Analysis and Principal Component Analysis techniques were used to identify groups of variables. These techniques have three main uses: to understand the structure of a set of variables, to build a questionnaire to measure a latent variable, and to reduce a set of data to a more manageable size while retaining as much information as possible. 60 The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test was used to measure the suitability of the sample for these statistical analyses, which indicated a very adequate adjustment. That is, the measurement of sample adequacy (MSA) was 0.96. The Bartlett sphericity test was performed on the correlation matrix to assess whether that matrix differs from identity. A significant test indicates that the correlation matrix is not equal to the identity matrix, with significant relationships between the variables. The Barlett sphericity test is highly significant for this data set (chisq = 11052.35, and p-value = 0). Thus, exploratory factorial analysis is appropriate. 61 Considering the KMO and the Bartlett test for the correlation matrix, the data are adequate for the analyses. 62 Both analyzes were performed with "oblimin" oblique rotation, which 54  maximizes the relationship between the variables and the factors. This rotation technique is based on the assumption that the factors are correlated. 63 Principal component analysis indicated that a four factor framework could be considered sufficient. In addition, the dataset used is valid for the model being tested. These four components explain 41% of the variance of the model. The exploratory factor analysis also indicated the existence of four factors in a well-adjusted model, which corroborates the results of the principal components analysis. These four factors explained 39% of the variance of the model.
The similarity between the models estimated through principal components analysis and exploratory factor analysis is evidence that the analyzed variables are reliable. 64 This similarity is such that 25 items are shared between the models which are grouped in a similar way in each factor. The dimensions of major importance to the managers participating in the interviews, namely Stakeholders, Control, Organizational Resources, and Access to Justice, were the same factors that emerged from the statistical analyses. This result confirms the use of a four factor model that emerged from the results of principal components and exploratory factor analysis.
The seven dimensions initially identified were regrouped into four factors, in a more parsimonious model. The items of the questionnaire were grouped so that the dimension "Organizational Resources" remained cohesive, constituting the factor Strategic Resources. The dimension "Control" merged with the dimension "Accountability," forming the factor Control and Accountability. In fact, the concept of accountability is strongly related to transparency, answerability, and enforcement, aimed at the control of public managers. 65 Thus, it was to be expected that characteristics of these dimensions would be grouped into a single factor.
The dimension "Stakeholders" was divided. The items that dealt directly with the users of the legal aid service were grouped with the items of the dimension "Access," constituting the factor Access to Justice. The other items of the dimension "Stakeholders" related to the engagement of the stakeholders in the Public Defender's Office's internal processes and decisions, were grouped into their own factor, called Social Participation.
The dimensions "Structure" and "Strategy" had few items emerging in the statistical analyses. As the analysis was based on the variation of the items, items with common variation tended to be classified in the same factor. The items related to these dimensions have little common variation among them, since the population studied belongs only to the Federal Public Defenders' Office.
This framework is both similar to and different from the one proposed by Akutsu et al. 66 The study of these authors suggested the dimensions of judicial governance would be institutional environment, performance, acess to justice, accountability, independence, resources and structure, and governance practices. For the Public Defender's Office, access to justice becomes a preponderant dimension, since it reflects the mission of that institution. Social participation is also a significant factor because it is an organization that deals with the most vulnerable public and needs to be attentive to the problems and desires of social leaders. This factor was not considered in the Akutsu et al. study strategic resources, find their correspondents in the Akutsu et al. model;accountability and resources and structure,respectively. 67,68 The questionnaire with the best statistical and theoretical coherence is composed of 32 items grouped into four factors. Factor 1 -Control and Accountability -consists of ten items. Factor 2 -Social Participation -is composed of six items. Factor 3 -Strategic Resourcescontains eight items. Factor 4 -Access to Justice -also has eight items. Table 1 shows the factors, items linked to them, their factorial loads, and the medians of the responses. The responses were made on a seven-point agreement scale, where "1" represents total disagreement and "7" total agreement.
For most of the items of the factor Control and Accountability, the respondents appear to be indifferent. The exceptions are the items 32 -"The Public Defenders' Office carries out orientation campaigns with its members in order to prevent functional faults," where the median respondent stated that they did not agree, 41 -"The Public Defenders' Office establishes mechanisms to guarantee the accountability of its public agents" and 44 -"The Public Defenders' Office applies, in its daily life, the Rule of Access to Information," where the median respondent said they agreed. The distributions of the responses related to the items of the Control and Accountability factor are shown in Figure 1.
These results indicate that public defenders, managers, and technicians do not perceive the structures and mechanisms of control as components of governance in the Public Defender's Office. Accountability was not a dimension highlighted by the subjects in the high-ranking employees of the Public Defender's Office at the time of the interviews. This result is even more remarkable when considering that the Office is an autonomous agency and slightly permeable to democratic control mechanisms. The establishment of control measures is essential to supervise and prevent the abuses and inefficiencies of government, and is an essential tool to improve the management of public policies. 69 It is worth mentioning that the Public Defender's Office is considered an agency with a high degree of autonomy and low levels of capacity. 70 For the Social Participation factor, the median opinion of the research participants was disagreement with the entire item. Their perception was that there is little or no social participation in decision-making processes. Item number 19 -"The Public Defenders' Office -allows the participation of all stakeholders (defenders, servants, and citizens) in its internal electoral processes" and Item number 21 -"The Public Defenders' Office -establishes mechanisms of social participation in the election of its leadership", in particular, elicited almost total disagreement. The distribution of answers to the items of the Social Participation factor are shown in Figure 2. The mode of these answers corresponds to "totally disagree" in all cases.
In fact, appointments to the highest positions in the Federal Public Defender's Office take place via an election in which only the defenders participate. In the case of the General Public Defender (the Minister), the Federal Deputy Public Defender (the Deputy Minister), and the General Corregidor, the President of the Republic appoints from closed lists compiled by the choice of the defenders themselves. Only the nominee for General Defender is submitted to oral test before approval by the Senate. In the case of the Superior Council, the normative body of the Public Defenders' Office, there is not even the participation of the President in the appointment. 71 Therefore, it is perceived that the Public Defenders' Office is insulated from 67 Ibid. 68

Responses Median
Control and Accountability 32 -The Public Defenders' Office carries out orientation campaigns with its members in order to prevent functional faults.   Regarding the Strategic Resources factor, there is a tendency for respondents to disagree with some aspects of the questionnaire items. Respondents agree that the resources of the Public Defender's Office have increased in recent years, and that has provided an opportunity for defenders to update their knowledge. However, there is a perception that the necessary working conditions for public agents to carry out their activities are not available, nor are actions taken to train leaders or public agents who provided care for citizens. There is also an indifference to the use of action plans to steer activities. That is, the median responses indicate that the respondents do not perceive the strategic orientation of the agency. Figure 3 shows the distributions of the answers related to the items of the Strategic Resources factor.
As stated in Figure 3, respondents agree that the budget has increased in recent years. However, there is a tendency to pay more attention to financial resources than to human resources. For good governance, it is not enough to accumulate resources, but they must be allocated efficiently. It is important to increase the level of education and professionalization of public servants to increase the capacity of government agencies. 75 75 Ibid. Regarding the Access to Justice factor, the opinion of the research participants is in broad agreement with the statements in the items. The median answers do not disagree with any item related to this factor. Items 24 -"The Public Defender's Office contacts other public agencies through administrative channels with the aim of solving the problems of its public customers" and 50 -"The Public Defender's Office conducts roaming customer service campaigns," both of which elicited a strong positive response from the respondents who consider that the agency is making an effort to fulfill its institutional mission-either by its own means or through cooperation with other organs. Figure 4 shows the distribution of answers to each item of this factor.
The mission of the Public Defender's Office is to provide access to justice for vulnerable citizens. With this objective, the agency can: (a) meet citizens who seek the agency or (b) work in cooperation with other public agencies or civil society entities. In both cases, coordinated action is required. To extend the coverage of the Public Defender's Office through partnerships with other public agencies, political networks that involve non-governmental stakeholders  alongside public agencies at different levels of the federal government are important to harmonize efforts and resources, not to mention developing more sophisticated strategies for the management and allocation of these resources. 76 The Public Defender's Office relies on stakeholders to access and use the resources they need to extend their activities. 77 This Office needs to cooperate with agencies responsible for controlling budgetary resources in order to increase its capacity.

Conclusions
This article set out to identify good governance standards in the Brazilian Federal Public Defender's Office, as well as the relationships between their dimensions and variables. Initially, the following dimensions were identified: Organizational Resources, Stakeholders, Control, Access, Strategy, Accountability and Structure. These dimensions were then rearranged into four factors: Strategic Resources, Control and Accountability, Access to Justice, and Social Participation. As the study of the governance structure of the Public Defender's Office was examined in depth, the analysis indicated that the Structure and Strategy dimensions are relatively less perceived by the managers and technicians of the Public Defender's Office. Therefore, the questionnaire used to explain the construct is composed of 32 items, which are not directly related to the Structure and Strategy dimensions.
The results state that the governance structure adopted in the Public Defender's Office is still fragile. Public defenders, managers, and technicians are indifferent to the attributes of Control and Accountability, demonstrating that they do not perceive structures and mechanisms of control to be components of good governance. These actors perceive little or no social participation in decision-making processes. Regarding Strategic Resources, although respondents agree that resources have increased, they realize that the necessary working conditions are not available to carry out their activities, and the actions to train leaders and agents in the main activity are inadequate. However, they could perceive an effort by the agency to promote access to justice, either by its own means or through collaboration with other public agencies or civil society entities.
In addition to these results, another contribution of this study is the building and testing of a scale that can be used to evaluate governance of other public defender's offices. It is an appropriate tool to evaluate the perceptions of technicians and managers of such agencies, and to diagnose shortcomings in the decision making process, thus providing important information and data for the formulation and improvement of public policies and management necessary for good governance of public defender's offices. This questionnaire also complements and advances knowledge about the functioning of the Brazilian Justice System, as well as providing a foundation for future studies.
It is important to examine the principles of good governance in a context in which the state is charged with engaging with society and producing quality public services that meet the needs of the population. The information and knowledge produced by this study can help the development of more efficient strategies in the management and allocation of public resources, and consequently more effective provision of legal aid services.
This research is limited in the sense it is an initial attempt to fulfill a research gap on governance adopted in the Public Defender's Office. Although relevant for future research, the results are preliminary and are more for guidance than reaching firm conclusions that practitioners can use. Also, the sample was not defined probabilistically, making generalizations insecure.
Further research is recommended, as well as replication in other public defender's offices in Brazil and other countries, which will allow the construction of a scale that is valid for this sort of agency in general. The cross-sectional nature of this research can also be considered a research limitation. The use of a longitudinal perspective would make it possible to see the evolution of the concept of good governance in Public Defender's Offices, as well as providing more empirical evidence to improve the accuracy of the questionnaire built. Furthermore, the results are in keeping with the bias of Public Defender's Office's managers and technicians. The present study did not examine the quality of the legal aid service from the users' perspective, and future research that seeks to understand citizens' perceptions of governance in the Public Defenders' Office is also recommended.

I -Introduction:
a) Clarify to the interviewee the context and objectives of the interview. b) Highlight that the data will be analyzed without mentioning names, and maintaining its anonymity. c) Request authorization for interview recording. II -Identification of factors related to Governance: Inform the interviewee that, for the purposes of this study, Governance is defined as a set of behaviors, standards, values and methods that privilege transparency, balance the interests of different stakeholders, and control the actions of the manager. a) In general, what are the main aspects that explain governance and management in the Brazilian Public Defender's Office? b) What are the main state mechanisms and external political control structures of the Public Defender's Office? What bodies would be involved in this control? c) What are the main mechanisms and internal political control structures of the Public Defender's Office? d) What actions would be required to increase access to justice for low-income citizens? e) How does the Public Defender's Office work together with organizations or groups in society to improve low-income citizens' access to justice? f) With regard to accountability of public and political agents, do you identify any specific actions of the Public Defender's Office to guarantee such attitudes? g) In your opinion, what are the resources, competencies and capacities necessary to guarantee the achievement of Public Defender's Office objectives? h) Which procedures would ensure that the action of the Public Defender's Office is focused on meeting social interests? III -Closure: a) Would you like to add any other relevant issues related to the Public Defender's Office governance? b) Identification of the interviewee: position, sector in which he/she works, time in the position, and academic education. c) Request to the interviewee indication of experts in Public Defender's to be interviewed.