Celina Souza

Políticas públicas: uma revisão da literatura

The article presents a review of the main concepts and models for making and assessment of public policies, seeking to synthesize the state of the art in the field, that is, to map how classic and more recent literature approach the subject. The article also seeks to discuss possibilities for application of distinct streams of neo-institutionalist theories to the assessment of public policies.

Participatory budgeting in Brazilian cities: limits and possibilities in building democratic institutions

This paper describes participatory budgeting in Brazil, where citizen assemblies in each district of a city determine priorities for the use of a part of the city’s revenues. This is one of the most significant innovations in Latin America for increasing citizen participation and local government accountability. After describing its antecedents, as various local governments sought to increase citizen involvement during the 1970s and 1980s, the paper reviews the experience with participatory budgeting in the cities of Porto Alegre and Belo Horizonte. It describes who took part in different (district and sectoral) citizen assemblies, the resources they could call on and the priorities established. It also discusses its effectiveness regarding increased participation, more pro-poor expenditures and greater local government accountability. While noting the limitations (for instance, some of the poorest groups were not involved, and in other cities it was not so successful) the paper also highlights how participatory budgeting allows formerly excluded groups to decide on investment priorities in their communities and to monitor government response. It has helped reduce clientelist practices and, perhaps more importantly for a society as unequal as Brazil, helped to build democratic institutions.

Governos locais e gestão de políticas sociais universais

Abstract: It is discussed in this article that despite the capacity of the local government to provide universalsocial services and increase forms of participative democracy to be strongly unequal, several counties aretaking on new roles in the local government as a result of federal and local politics. Despite this expansion ofthe counties, the sustainability of the present form of government is still unclear. Key words: local government; participative politics; social politics. C ELINA S OUZA AO P AULO EM ERSPECTIVA , 18(2): 27-41, 2004 esde a promulgacao da Constituicao de 1988, asinstituicoes politicas brasileiras estao passandopor profundas modificacoes. Essas mudancascriaram novas institucionalidades, principalmente na esferalocal, resultado de compromissos gerados durante oprocesso de redemocratizacao. Entre esses compromissosestavam o de restaurar a Federacao, atraves do aumentodo poder politico e tributario das entidades subnacionais,e o de consolidar a democracia, por meio do empo-deramento (

Governos e sociedades locais em contextos de desigualdades e de descentralização

Com a redemocratizacao, o Brasil se tornou um pais altamente descentralizado em comparacao com outros paises federativos. Este fato trouxe inumeras mudancas nas relacoes intergovernamentais e no poder relativo dos governos e das sociedades locais. Apesar da existencia de uma vasta literatura sobre as consequencias da descentralizacao, sao ainda pouco explorados seus problemas em contextos de altas desigualdades inter e intra-regionais. Argumenta-se que em tais contextos os resultados da descentralizacao sao contraditorios. Por um lado, a descentralizacao promove incentivos para que o governo federal negocie com os governos subnacionais a decisao e a implementacao de politicas publicas. A descentralizacao tambem incentiva maior participacao dos governos locais na provisao de servicos sociais e na adocao de politicas participativas, tornando complexas as relacoes entre os diferentes niveis de governo e entre estes e segmentos da sociedade local. Por outro lado, a experiencia brasileira de descentralizacao com desigualdade desnuda os constrangimentos e as limitacoes da descentralizacao em paises historicamente marcados por heterogeneidades regionais e sociais.

Reforma do Estado, descentralização e desigualdades

O foco do artigo esta no exame das propostas do Ministerio da Administracao e Reforma do Estado - MARE. Analisando seus possiveis efeitos da perspectiva das desigualdades sociais. Demonstra-se a ausencia, nessas propostas, de indicacoes mais adequadas para se enfrentar essa questao.

Federalismo e conflitos distributivos: disputa dos estados por recursos orçamentários federais

This article analyzes how State-by-State representation in the Brazilian National Congress processes and negotiates amendments to the Federal budget within the Joint Budget Committee. Amendments submitted from 1995 to 1999 by members of Congress from three selected States (Bahia, Ceara, and Parana) are analyzed. Several hypotheses concerning the role of amendments are investigated, arguing that the amendments, like certain Federal policies, facilitate the accommodation of tensions arising in a Federative system marked by regional inequalities.

CONSTRUÇÃO E CONSOLIDAÇÃO DE INSTITUIÇÕES DEMOCRÁTICAS papel do orçamento participativo

Na maioria das democracias recentes, governos e segmentos da sociedade vem buscando mecanismos para fortalecer as instituicoes democraticas. Com esse objetivo, varias experiencias tem sido desenvolvidas para aumentar a participacao dos cidadaos no processo decisorio de politicas publicas, em especial as de abrangencia local. Uma dessas experiencias e a do orcamento participativo. Este artigo analisa a literatura sobre o tema, particularmente a relativa as experiencias de Porto Alegre e de Belo Horizonte.

Regiões metropolitanas: condicionantes do regime político

The author of this article takes the metropolitan administration issue, focusing the impact of the political regime, the federal system and the intergovernmental relations. Her point is that the institutional choices regarding the first metropolitan administration experience in Brazil, enforced by an authoritarian and centralizing regime, has marked its path, conditioning the later choices.

Federalismo e gasto social no Brasil: tensões e tendências

Present features of Federalism in Brazil together with recent changes are analyzed in search of dominant tendencies. Strong tensions are identified on several levels, specially (a) between the commitment regarding policies directed toward the reduction of social and regional inequalities taken by the national State during re-democratization and the exigencies of the economic policy which it adopted; (b) between the decentralization of policies and the limitation of resources as an effect of regional inequalities; (c) between the federal emphasis on the sub-national unities and the drive towards a recentralization of policies.

Coalizões eleitorais e ajuste fiscal nos estados brasileiros

In federal countries that have reinstated the popular vote for state governors and in which fiscal adjustment is a priority, the states have become important players in fiscal control. The article analyzes the impact of policies of hard budget constraints on the electoral results for state governors and challenges the hypothesis that state politics in Brazil are moved by clientelism, by policies not affecting the status quo (traditional politics) and by the use of public resources to sustain them. I argue that state politics in Brazil is driven by several rationales. Different rationales give room for state politicians to adopt fiscal policies and still be reelected or elect their candidates for governorship. Three states have been selected to test these hypotheses: Bahia, Ceara, and Parana.