Local Governments, State Autonomy and the Production of Cultural Policies

the Case of the Grande ABC Region in Brazil

Abstract

Although assured by the 1988 Constitution, municipal autonomy, according to some authors, has been threatened by a recentralization process in Brazilian federalism. In the case of cultural  policies, such problematization is particularly relevant, since several researches have been published in recent years seeking to systematize the Brazilian experience, often highlighting experiences such as the National Culture Plan, the National Culture System and the Cultura Viva Program, [all of them] institutionalized at the national level, considered as fundamental contributions to the formulation and implementation of those  policies. Thus, is there room for [the exercise of] municipal autonomy in the production of local cultural policies? To address this question, this paper discusses [considers] the recent experience of the Grande ABC territory, which encompasses seven municipalities (Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, São Caetano do Sul, Diadema, Mauá, Ribeirão Pires e Rio Grande da Serra) located in the metropolitan region of São Paulo - the largest Brazilian city; with specific intention of understanding the scope and limits of local government action in this policy arena. To that end, our research methods encompasses literature review on local municipal experiences [over the past thirty years], the mapping of local cultural actions linked to federal programs - especially the Cultura Viva Program, the survey of institutional structures associated with the formulation and implementation of local  cultural policies and the systematization of current state-society arrangements for operationalization of these policies in the referred seven cities. From this panorama, we propose to identify where local governments and federal governments engage in the production of these  policies, as well as an indication towards applicable remaining spaces of autonomy, envisioning novel agendas for future studies.