This article examines theoretical critiques and empirical evidence indicating the need to reassess the adequacy of the bureaucratic public administration (BPA) paradigm in Brazil. The BPA is one of the three paradigms of Brazil’s historical-administrative evolution, as defined by Bresser-Pereira. In his view, BPA emerges as highly rational in 1930 and becomes increasingly irrational after the 1988 Constitution. Bureaucratization is seen as an event rather than as a process, an assumption criticized both by historical research on bureaucracies (e.g., Crooks and Parsons) and by critical Weberian interpretations developed by Brazilian thinkers such as Guerreiro Ramos, Tragtenberg, and Prestes Motta. Our historical research, based on documents registered in the National Archives and the National Library databases, finds evidence of formal and legal rationalization in Brazil before 1930, supporting the critical interpretation. Historical records indicate rational claims for state action as a form of rational domination, defining jurisdiction and functional attributions, and designing a rational hierarchical organizational structure. There were four administrative reforms prior to 1930, whose ministerial departmentalization persists to the present day and confirms the bureaucratization process before the BPA. These findings indicate that the BPA, as a paradigm, requires reassessment.