The factors wich explain the diferents choices of subnational goverments concerning the provision of public policies in Brazil (1997-200) / Fatores explicativos das diferentes estratégias de municipalização do ensino fundamental nos governos subnacionais do Brasil (1997-2000)

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2008

RESUMO

This thesis analyses the factors which explain the choices of subnational governments concerning the provision of public policies in the Brazilian federation. As a means of empirical testing, the decentralization of primary education from the states to municipalities, between 1997 and 2006, is taken as an object of study. The predominant interpretation on this matter points to the approval of a federal norm, known as Fundef, as the sole factor explaining decentralization. The reason for this interpretation is that the norm links the number of students being attended to the distribution of revenues, therefore, motivating city mayors to expand their school systems. However, this thesis shows that Fundef is not a sufficient factor to explain neither the decentralization nor the variation observed in the levels of decentralization among Brazilian states. Furthermore, an analysis of the choices made by municipalities in the state of São Paulo reveals that a significant number of them decided not to increase their school systems after the approval of the federal norm. All these results can only be explained when a set of other factors are incorporated into the analysis. Relevant factors are shown to be: other federal and state-level institutional rules, the situation of public finances at the time of Fundefs implementation, the initial level of students enrolment, the political party of governors and mayors, and other specific, local variables, such as the availability of budget resources and demographic aspects. The two main conclusions of this thesis are: 1) the interest of state governments to transfer the responsibility of primary schools to their municipalities is the most important factor that explains successful decentralization and 2) when this interest is transformed into state programs with extra incentives to further decentralization, these become the main factor that explains the observed variation.

ASSUNTO(S)

governo federal estados e municípios federal government partidos decentralization fundef states and municipalities fundef political parties municipalização

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