DESCENTRALIZAÇÃO E AUTONOMIA MUNICIPAL: UMA ANÁLISE DAS TRANSFORMAÇÕES INSTITUCIONAIS NO FEDERALISMO BRASILEIRO

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the historical and institutional context in which the autonomy of municipal governments is situated in the Brazilian federative sphere. The 1988's Brazilian Federal Constitution treats the municipality as a "federative entity" with political, legislative, administrative, and financial autonomy. However, the new institutional design provoked reactions that jeopardized such autonomy, especially the financial. In order to evaluate such reactions, the Amendments to the Constitution that somehow affected the municipal autonomy over the last 24 years in which the current Constitution is in force, were raised. Data on some municipal financial indicators were presented to situate the impacts of the constitutional reforms. The data analysis suggests that the 1990s were marked by an attack to the financial autonomy of the municipalities, which were considered federative entities somewhat committed to the fiscal adjustment in the economic crisis background. During the following decade, the interfederative cooperation increased, even with the expansion of governmental transfers to the Municipalities. However, problems arising from tripartite federal structures, marked by a strong heterogeneity between Brazilian municipalities, still have to be solved. Keywords: Municipality. Financial autonomy. Constitutional reforms. Municipal finances. BrazilianFederation. O objetivo deste artigo e analisar o contexto historico-institucional em que se situa a autonomia dos governos municipais no ambito do federalismo brasileiro. A constituicao de1988 tornou o Municipio "ente federativo" dotado de autonomia politica, legislativa, administrativa e financeira. O novo desenho institucional, no entanto, suscitou reacoes quecolocaram em xeque aquela autonomia, em particular a financeira. Para avaliar tais reacoesforam levantadas as Emendas a Constituicao que afetaram a autonomia municipal ao longodos ultimos 24 anos em que a atual Constituicao esta em vigor. Dados relativos a algunsindicadores de financas municipais foram apresentados para situar o impacto das reformasconstitucionais. A analise dos dados sugere que os anos 1990 foram marcados por um ataquea autonomia financeira dos Municipios, considerados entes federativos pouco comprometidoscom o ajuste fiscal em contexto de crise economica. Na decada seguinte, avancou acooperacao interfederativa, inclusive com aumento das transferencias governamentais para osMunicipios. Resta, contudo, resolver problemas decorrentes da estrutura federativa tripartite, marcado por forte heterogeneidade entre os municipios brasileiros. Palavras chave: Municipio. Autonomia financeira. Reformas constitucionais. Financas municipais. Federacao brasileira.