Fundurb: arena of conflict or discretion? An analysis of the instrumentalization of urban policies in São Paulo

Abstract

This article aims to understand how institutional mechanisms influence interest intermediation regarding the conflict around the resources of the Urban Development Fund of São Paulo. In order to accomplish that, we have analyzed the decision-making process of the fund between 2003 and 2016, aiming to identify arenas where decision-making took place, which actors are involved and which is their role in the process, as well as the criteria used in the prioritization of departments and projects. In addition, we have performed a quantitative analysis of the resource distribution between departments and policy areas, which started in 2007. Operating in a theoretical gap between political science and urban studies, the article used neoinstitutionalist literature as a theoretical reference, particularly the sociology of public action. The research concluded that the formal and informal rules that govern Fundurb’s decision-making process partially limit the behavior of the actors and, thus, establishing asymmetric power relations between different demands and interests. In addition, we have identified proper effects and disguised logic of this instrumentalization, given that such mechanisms avoid questioning on the problematization of urban development policies by producing inertia, guaranteeing resource allocation.

Keywords:
Urban policy; Budgeting; Neoinstitutionalism; Public policy instrumentalization