Análise da efetividade do processo participativo do Colegiado de Desenvolvimento Territorial Metropolitano de Salvador (CODETER – TMS)

Abstract

The present piece of work aims to analyze the factors that influence the effectiveness of the participatory process of the Collegiate of Territorial Development - Metropolitano de Salvador (CODETER - TMS), a participatory institution created in the frame of the territorial development policy inaugurated by the Lula (PT) government. In this regard, this research falls under a collection of studies about the effectiveness of the participatory process, which spread in Brazil throughout the 2000s, specifying the internal and external conditions that affect participatory institutions. In this sense, qualitative research was carried out, involving documentary analysis, on-site investigation of the Board’s meetings and plenary sections, as well as interviews with strategic actors. The main instrumental dimension adopted was the Institutional Design, based on the adaptation of studies by Faria and Ribeiro (2011) on public policy councils so as to analyze the Degree of Institutionalization, Inclusive Potential and Representation of the Territorial Collegiate. This dimension was complemented by an analysis of the Perspective of Social Actors of CODETER, based on the studies of Pires et al. (2011); Pires (2014), aiming to compare the views of different social actors in relation to the factors that may affect the effectiveness of this instance. The results show that despite the long-standing existence of the Metropolitan Collegiate, its organizational structure and decentralized decision-making process, face difficulties quite common to several participatory institutions, including a lack of training of members, low attendance, financial problems, little diversity of segments and under-representation of city councils and other bodies. However, the research also found external factors to impact the collegiate's effectiveness. This reality is exacerbated according to the state technicians interviewed, due to the political duality between the municipal and state government, low integration between metropolitan regional and territorial institutions, in addition to the troubled political scenario marked by the cut of federal funds for territorial policy since the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.