The governmental transition in Brazil emerged on the agenda of public administration with the re-democratization of the country in the 1980s and the return of direct elections in the three levels of government. However, its institutionalization in the country is recent. In the federal government the normative instrument appears in the year of 2002, during the FHC-Lula transition. In the state and municipal governments, the alternation of power has been gradually regulated by normative

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... s and guiding documents since the 1988 Federal Constitution, increasing in each election from the mid-2000s. In this context, this article is an exploratory study that, based on documentary analysis, makes an inventory of the normative instruments that regulate and guide the alternation of power in the federal government and in the 27 units of the federation. The results show that control institutions are prominent in the current debate and point to the opportunity for the government transition process to be treated as a public policy of management by the executive branch.