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Rather than focusing on the best places to live, I started this research with the aim of examining the dynamics of city governments, how they operate and in the end how their actions do or do not contribute to making city life more bearable. Curitiba, the capital of the Paraná State, is unlike much of the rest of Brazil in terms of the positive outcomes that have resulted from local government intervention in the process of urban reform. Although there is no such thing as a perfect urban reform process, the situation in Curitiba is worth examining because of the beneficial impact urban reform has had on the lives of the city residents in the form of improvements to and the expansion of the provision of public services. The urban development process in Curitiba offers a unique opportunity to study government and politics: it is a case that combines city leadership with an innovative plan to transform a chaotic provincial town into a more livable metropolis. In the early 1960s, this type of urban vision marked a total departure from the conventional way in which local governments in other Brazilian cities were dealing with the challenges posed by urban growth. The fact that almost 40 years later, the same planning instrument, enacted by legislation in 1965, continues to orient the urban development process in Curitiba—and that other city governments, both in Brazil and elsewhere, are looking for guidance from the Curitiba case—indicates that the urban vision of its past may offer lessons to the present.
The decision-making process behind the urban reforms in Curitiba is this book’s main theme. After extended periods of fieldwork in that city and in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest metropolis, I was able to identify some of the government attributes that foster more harmonious policy environments, which in turn lead to more coherent public policies.