A descentralização como estratégia democrática para o desenvolvimento: a Região Metropolitana de Salvador frente a outras experiências de gestão compartilhada

Abstract

Three out of four inhabitants of Latin America live in urban centers. In Brazil, cities such as: Salvador, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Recife, present evident metropolitan problems, requiring coordinated actions between Municipalities, civil society and economic agents. The participation of the Member States and the Union is admitted in certain circumstances. The interdepartmental governance model should be able to guarantee the federative balance and democratic management of cities. Although the institutionalization of the metropolitan regions has been a role of the states since 1988, it should preserve decentralization as a development strategy, assuring to the local political-administrative authorities the protagonism of the execution of metropolitan public policies. To a certain extent, the political pluralism of the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 finds better opportunities to manifest itself at the local level, and public spheres of participation and deliberation should be created on the functions of common interests. Although the first metropolitan areas in Brazil were instituted in 1973, during these 44 years, there was a deficient formation of intergovernmental articulation models, which were generally centralized and with a low social mobilization power, in short, adopted top-down management. In 2014, the State of Bahia published a Complementary Law # 41 and reforms the metropolitan area of Salvador, under the guise of an intergovernmental authority entitled Metropolitan Entity of the Metropolitan Region of Salvador (EMRMS). This thesis proposes to study if the conduction of this process which gave rise to the EMRMS obeyed the centralizing bias of other models of governability or broke with this tradition, promoting a more decentralized and democratic institutionalization. Based on some international scenarios, especially in the governance model adopted in Barcelona / Es and Turin / It regions, and in other metropolitan management experiences within Brazil itself, this thesis assumes that metropolitan urban planning instruments must obey the principles of democratic management provided by the City Statute, favoring direct participation, building bottom-up management. The main purpose is to demonstrate that metropolitan development depends on the empowerment of the communities that live in these municipalities that are part of the metropolitan region. This work draws on the ideas of Jürgen Habermas about deliberative democracy and the notions of development of Amartya Sen, as theoretical bases to support its conclusions. This thesis also questions the legitimacy of the EMRMS, since it did not use the principles of democratic management prestige by the Metropolis Statute and because it conferred on the State of Bahia a privileged position if compared to other subnational entities. To carry out this research, the hypothetical-deductive method was used, appropriating structuralism and institutionalism. Bibliographical surveys and visits to public agencies and institutions, as well as documentary research were done.