Gestão democrática da política urbana: mecanismos participativos na esfera local

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the democratic management of urban policy. In this context, it is about the evolution of the concept of democracy, especially related to the representative democracy and the participative democracy. For this, it analyzes the wide number of participative instruments which are applicable to urban management, not only those that were established directly by the Federal Constitution, but also those derived from it. Such instruments are constant in the subconstitutional legislation, especially the City Statute. In addition, it analyzes the elaboration process of the Director Plan of Belém, revealing what has gone right and the difficulties about adopting participative mechanisms in the urban universe. According to this, it is relevant to check the relations of power currently in the city, especially concerning the exercise of the local power nowadays, when the globalization has been altering the cities’ profiles. It opens the debate about the range of acting in the local decisionmaking power.