Urban Brazil: Visions, Afflictions, and Governance Lessons By Iva ...

His mantra was that if Curitiba has changed, others could as well. How then can we explain variations in governance in large and relatively prosperous urban centers subject to identical constraints imposed by national politics and the national political economy? Over the period from 1965 to 2000—the timeline of this analysis—successive city governments in São Paulo and Curitiba faced daunting challenges posed by increasing socioeconomic inequalities, the country’s inequitable model of development, and the absence of a coherent national urban policy amid a chaotic and intense process of urbanization. Although constrained by these factors, the Curitiba and São Paulo governments also had abundant resources at their disposal, due to their centrality as state capitals in the south-southeast corridor, Brazil’s most developed region. My analysis of 35 years of the decision-making process and public policy environment in Curitiba, in comparison with public policies in São Paulo during the same time period, emphasizes the explanatory power of the path dependence model⁶ and the positive influence of government attributes such as polit­ical commitment, consensus building, and organizational capabilities. Path-dependent evolution of government policies and programs can lock in particular approaches and make it difficult to change course. Within this environment, posi­tive government attributes can make it easier for local officials, acting as public entrepreneurs, to establish productive policy frameworks for designing, implementing, and improving city programs.