Pyrrhic Potatoes. Comments on the Institutional Rules, Macroeconomic Constraints and Innovation of the Brazilian Social Protection System in the 1990S and 2000S/As Batatas de Pirro. Comentarios Sobre As Regras Institucionais, Constrangimentos Macroeconomicos E Inovacao Do Sistema de Protecao Social Brasileiro Nas Decadas de 1990 E 2000 (Discussants/Debatedores‪)‬

Commenting on a signed text is always more stimulating that elaborating a report encased in anonymity (of both, author and writer of report). More stimulating and easier. That is why the annoyance provoked by the title of Nilson do Rosario Costa's article was dissipated by the certainty that I would find the commentator's fine irony in what was to follow. The annoyance, it must be clarified, comes from the discomfort that the neo-institutionalist approach causes in me--in political science represented by an abusive use of concepts such as veto-players, strategic behavior, agenda power, etc--not from its emphasis on authors, rules and institutions, naturally, but rather by the negligence that it generally expresses in relation to explanatory factors of a structural nature. However, in this case, this dissipated annoyance no longer matters. The important thing is the substantive, useful argumentation that does not allow itself to be engulfed by the analytical model. This argumentation merits considerations that are equally substantive and independent from any divergences regarding focus.