O desenho institucional dos conselhos nas cidades brasileiras de pequeno e médio porte: gestão de políticas públicas no poder local

Abstract

The paper compares policy councils of medium and small-sized Brazilian cities. Its goal is to identify characteristics of the institutional design and the possible impact of the municipal size on the dynamics of these institutions. It is also intended to offer subsidies for the understanding of public administration in small municipalities. The study was based on a sample with 59 towns from the five Brazilian regions. It tested the hypothesis that the size of the municipality affects the institutional designs of the councils, which are supposedly more precarious in smaller cities. It was also sought to verify if the type of public policy (policy area) interferes in the shaping of the institutional design. The results indicate the importance of the size of the municipality to explain the incidence of more precarious institutional design in small cities. The type of policies, on the other hand, does not interfere in the variation of the institutional design.