CONSÓRCIOS INTERMUNICIPAIS COMO INSTRUMENTO DE GESTÃO COMPARTILHADA: o caso do Consórcio Público Intermunicipal das Mesorregiões Norte e Leste Maranhense (CONLESTE) - 2005 a 2022

Abstract

The democratic opening, starting with the 1988 constitution, was accompanied by political, fiscal and administrative decentralization, creating a division of responsibilities among the federative entities. The municipalities then took over the execution of policies that were previously the responsibility of the Union or the States. The results of the democratic opening are antagonistic, on the one hand the municipalities had greater autonomy, with greater participation of society in the control and supervision of public management, on the other hand there was a reduction in the supply of public services, given the low fiscal capacity of the municipalities. Intermunicipal consortia spread, therefore, as an alternative to promote local development based on cooperation between municipalities and thinking focused on microregions, on territories. Thus, this master's thesis proposes to investigate to what extent these consortia can change the local reality of the consortium municipalities, focusing on the specific case of the Intermunicipal Public Consortium of the North and East Maranhense Mesorregions - CONLESTE, created in 2005 and still in effect. For this, the methodology used is quali-quantitative, thus performing: i) qualitative analysis of the consortium through base documents and semi-structured interviews categorized according to the parameters deemed relevant for the political and institutional analysis of public consortia, proposals by Brito (2017) and Dieguez (2011); ii) quantitative analysis, to verify the influence of the consortium over the years on municipal indicators. The results show that the consortium is able to articulate institutionally with the public sector, from the municipal to the federal level, in addition to being able to support itself financially and raise funds. However, the consortium still cannot be institutionally effective in all consortium municipalities. In addition, the population is not directly included in the decisions of the consortium. To verify the influence of the consortium over the years on the municipal indicators, panel data regression was used based on the chosen dependent variables: GDP per capita, Formal Employment, Average Income and the Municipal Development Index of Municipalities – Firjan Index. There was a positive relationship between Formal Employment and Average Income. The determining variable CONLESTE does not appear to be related to the variable FIRJAN and GDP per capita. In this way, the consortium is not yet able to generate development for the municipalities due to various limitations in the articulation format and weaknesses in the formulation of public policies by municipal governments. However, the data do not exempt the importance of the Consortium for Maranhão, since it contributes to other important points, such as institutional strengthening.