The organizational learning in the implementation of industrial public policies in the Brazilian Northeast states

This article aims to expand current knowledge on the learning processes that take place in the implementation of public policies, trying to understand, in particular, the politics involved in these processes and how it influences the evolution and results of these policies. Based on case studies carried out on the industrial policies implemented by the Brazilian states of Bahia, Ceara and Pernambuco in recent decades, conclusion points at the fact that the learning of individuals and groups within the government alone does not seem to guarantee an effective learning by the government when implementing its policies. In the cases studied, organizational learning was a process in which politics and cognitive aspects interact under the restrictions of specific institutional circumstances. Politics can either filter, delay and even prevent the organizational assimilation of the individuals or groups learning, and, sometimes, may accelerate it.