The investigation intends to discuss three administrative reforms that took place in Brazil and that are shown with distinction in specialized literature. The first of them developed during the first Vargas administration, the second during the Castelo Branco administration in 1967, and the last was implemented during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration in 1995, the only one occuring in a democratic regime. The analysis about the administrative reforms is guided by three main analytical axis. The first one concerns the definition of the role to be played by the State and of its relation to the Market. The second deals with the unfolding of the administrative reform over the federal system, more specifically if it prioritized centralization or decentralization. The third refers to the complex relationship between government and society, more specifically to the interactions between clientelistic aspects and a more universal approach towards general proceedings. It was concluded that during the Vargas administration a cycle of administrative reforms began with the intent to implement a bureaucratic rational-legal authority. In this particular moment, the emphasis in political centralization and in an intense presence of the State in the economy prevailed. In the course of the Castelo Branco administration, the 1967 decree-law number 200 intended to strengthen the indirect administration amid a moment of intense political centralization in the hands of the federal government and a parallel expansion of the national-developmentist State. The 1995 administrative reform intended to replace the bureaucratic administration models by post-bureaucratic ones. It did not succeed due to the fiscal perspectives that were predominant at the time. However, it provided a redefinition of the functions of the State by promoting privatizations and creating regulatory agencies, and aiming to find some space for decentralization.