Development, Democracy and Intersectorality in Brazil: notes on public policy instruments for social development * 1 Fernanda Natasha Bravo Cruz ** 2 Abstract In Brazil, as in other countries, the ruling party motivates political opportunity structures, directing actions that contextualize (and are contextualized by) subjects, instruments and their inherent contents. This paper analyzes Brazilian social development policy instruments from 2011 to 2014, coinciding with the Workers’ Party’s third consecutive administration in the federal Executive Power. Driven by concepts of intersectorality (Solar, 2007), instrument (Lascoumes, Le Galès, 2007, 2012) and collective action (Hatchuel, 2001), the analysis considers instruments and relations expressed in official documents such as laws, decrees, organizational charts and action plans referring to the set of measures that shapes the Brazil Without Extreme Poverty Plan (Brasil Sem Miséria, or BSM). The three BSM axes (access to services, income security and productive inclusion) require federative arrangements and links among the Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger (MDS) and other ministries. BSM, which also incorporates the notorious Bolsa Família, affects more than sixteen million people with a household income lower than R$140 (~40 €) per person (BRAZIL, MDS, 2014). BSM is organized in a context of less hierarchical and less organized public policies within specific sectors. In this scenario, BSM is officially presented as an intersectoral coordination, verified here by analysing the process flows (guided by the Extraordinary Secretariat for Extreme Poverty Erradication-SESEP/MDS), between support groups (Inter-institutional Monitoring Group, Situation Rooms and Civil * Paper approved for presentation during the 2 nd International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP), in the Panel T06P05: Policy Implementation: analysis of cases from classical and new perspectives. Milan, July 1 st , 2015. ** PhD Student of the Postgraduate Program on Development, Society and International Cooperation, at the Centre for Advanced Multidisciplinary Studies, University of Brasília (PPGDSCI/CEAM/UnB). Master in Political Sociology by the Federal University of Santa Catarina (PPGSP/UFSC). Bachelor in International Relations by the State University of São Paulo (Unesp).