The current debate on state capacity, despite practical relevance for policy-making and analytical advances in the last decades, is still permeated by several theoretical and methodological problems. Considering that a revised concept of policy capacity has analytical utility, this work has contributed to the literature in three interrelated ways. First of all, we work on the concept of state capacity, highlighting its specificities in regard to the generic notion of power. Secondly, this article shows the relevance of bringing contextual and political elements into the debate of capacity. Thirdly, it helps to establish clearer boundaries on this notion, marking its differences to concepts such as resources and results. Empirically, it analyzes policy capacity developments in areas that have expressed priorities in the governmental agenda in former Brazilian presidencies. In the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the focus is on the fiscal function of the state as a guarantor of credibility for investors, having as a case study the National Treasury Secretariat (STN), within the Ministry of Finance. In Lula's and Dilma's terms, the attention is the social area: the National Secretariat of Citizenship Income, within the Ministry of Social Development, and the National Secretariat of Housing, within the Ministry of Cities, both created at the beginning of the government Lula.
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