Boroughs in the City of São Paulo: decentralization, institutional obstacles and executive coalition

Abstract

This research project intends to evaluate the institutional barriers that the government of São Paulo has faced to implement the decentralization of boroughs in the city, according to Law No. 13,999. The central objective of this research is to ascertain whether the executive and legislative of the city (key institutions in a context we call executive coalition) hinder or not the process of decentralization of local government, due to disputes over greater power in municipal government. For this, the research will be divided into two parts: the first will hold a bibliographic and journalistic survey to check how was the process of decentralization of local government since the beginning of discussions in 1953 with Regional Administrations until today. This step also aims to discuss the latest city administrations that have not yet been studied by academics. The second step of the research will consist of a field study in which we intend to interview key players from the municipal government to capture the process of political and administrative decentralization in São Paulo. It is expected from the structure outlined here to determine the capacity and the governability - understood as the ability of the chief executive to implement their agenda through the coalition in the legislative - that the current management of the São Paulo government has to accomplish political and administrative decentralization necessary for a democratic management of the city, providing concrete mechanisms for popular participation, as stated in the law creating the boroughs, cited above. (AU)