Transformaciones de las administraciones locales en paralelo a la descentralización en Brasil

Abstract

This article deals with the way that decentralisation in Brazil, driven by the Constitutional Reform of 1988, provoked changes to the municipal administrative organisation. In order to illustrate this matter, the article analyses the transformation of the administrative structures of two middle-size cities: Algoinhas and Barreiras, located in the interior of Bahia State, at the northeast region of the country. It is important to mention the terms of the process of decentralisation starting from the evolution of the organisational charts, identifying the effects and challenges of the instauration of public policies.

It is evident that the successive administrative reforms of these two cities do not represent a rupture, but rather a slow path towards adaptation; second, that these adjustments to the local administrative structure possess a level of synchrony with the opportunities given by the resolutions of other governmental spheres; third, that the organisational methods reveal and option for a model of sectorial decentralisation; and finally, that the sector of urban policies fails to fully integrate instruments for decentralisation included in other public policies.