The Politics of Incremental Progressivism

THE POLITICS OF INCREMENTAL PROGRESSIVISM ‘Ungovernable neoliberal post politics assemblage metropolis from the South? No. This book shows innovative redistributive policies, regulation, and social participation recently in São Paulo, although gradually, slowly, and contentiously, and despite failures and inequalities. This great one-city-many-policies comparison departs from high quality empirically grounded research to show that collective action and public policies are back in town. In São Paulo, they have made a difference.’ Patrick Le Galès, Sciences Po CNRS research Professor, Dean Sciences Po Urban School, France‘For anyone interested in urban governance, The Politics of Incremental Progressivism is a must-read. Nowhere in the world have cities faced greater challenges yet been more innovative in tackling the problems of urban poverty and exclusion than in Brazil. One could not ask for a more incisive, detailed and groundbreaking set of studies on urban transformation and the politics of change.’ Patrick Heller, Lyn Cross Professor of Social Sciences, Brown University, USALarge metropolises of the Global South are usually portrayed as ungovernable. The Politics of Incremental Progressivism analyzes urban policies in São Paulo – one of the biggest and most complex Southern cities – not only challenging those views, but showing the recent occurrence of progressive change. This book develops the first detailed and systematic account of the policies and politics that construct, maintain and operate a large Southern metropolis. The chapters cover the policies of bus and subway transportation, traffic control, waste collection, development licensing, public housing and large urban projects, additionally to budgeting, electoral results and government formation and dynamics.This important book contributes to the understanding of how the city is governed, what kinds of policies its governments construct and deliver and, more importantly, under what conditions it produces redistributive change in the direction of policies that reduce its striking social and urban inequalities.

Notes on Contributors vii List of Abbreviations and Acronyms ix Series Editors’ Preface x Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Eduardo Cesar Leão Marques Part I Urban Politics and Political Institutions 43 1 Governments, Mayors and Policies 45 Eduardo Cesar Leão Marques and Telma Hoyler 2 The Politics of Executive-Legislative Relations 69 Eduardo Cesar Leão Marques and Telma Hoyler 3 The Politics of Municipal Budgets 92 Ursula Dias Peres Part II Governing Urban Services 117 4 Struggling to Replace the Car Paradigm: Politics and Mobility Change 119 Carolina Requena 5 Increasingly Governing Bus Services Through Policy Instruments 136 Marcos Lopes Campos 6 Technocratic Decisions and Financial Arrangements in Subway Services 155 Daniela Costanzo 7 The Incremental Politics of Waste Management Regulation 175 Samuel Ralize de Godoy Part III Governing Land and Housing 193 8 Continuities and Changes in the Diversification of Public Housing 195 Eduardo Cesar Leão Marques and Magaly Marques Pulhez 9 Developers and Politicians in the Institutionalizing of Development Regulation 217 Telma Hoyler 10 Conflicts and Incremental Change in Urban Renewal Instruments 235 Betina Sarue and Stefano Pagin 11 Circulation of Institutional Formats in Urban Regeneration: From São Paulo to Porto Maravilha 257 Betina Sarue Conclusion: The Political Production of Incremental Progressivism 278 Eduardo Cesar Leão Marques Index 287