Fiscal Decentralization and Municipal Autonomy: elements on debate

• Autor(a) principal: Nazareth, Paula Alexandra
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Paranaense de Desenvolvimento (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ipardes.emnuvens.com.br/revistaparanaense/article/view/703
• topic: Decentralization. Municipal autonomy. Municipal finance. Policy-making x policy decision-making. Local development.; Descentralización. Autonomía municipal. Policy-making x policy decisionmaking. Desarrollo local.; Descentralização. Autonomia municipal. Policy-making x policy decisionmaking. Desenvolvimento local.

The current decentralization process escalating in Brazil since 1980 flanked by the endeavor of the democratization in the country, strengthened the role of the municipality once it was elevated to the status of autonomous federal entity by the Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988. Upon 25 years of the given new democratic legacy, the municipal revenues increased in volume, in comparison to other spheres, due to the establishment of law and regulations accrediting new responsibilities and new obligations for the municipality. Although it was transformed into politics generator-making agent with potential to promote the local development, by means of power entitlement to be effective as well as the decision towards the design of such politics, the municipality has restricted autonomy towards political decision-making: most part of the resources tend to be transferred to a pre-defined destination via legislation or in the several programs set by the central government. Thus, public expenditures are increasingly as much as to be defined by federal rules as well as financial releases by conditional transfers to sectorial funds, restricted, in practice, to the autonomy of the local expenses. Henceforth, this essay is focused on the contribution to the debate about the possibility of municipal administrations to perform fundamental role of promotions of local development, with greater citizen participation and reduction of social inequalities of which surrounds Brazil, by highlighting elements for the proper analysis of the decentralization process towards the impact of public finance and municipal autonomy.