COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND THE DECREASING ROLE OF THE STATE

Abstract

The article draws upon the authors’ experience in dealing with urban problems, notably with the development of investment programs for Brazilian municipalities and with the creation of urban/environmental data base projects of good practices. The paper starts out by contextualizing the urban national scenario of the last two decades, when administrative and political decentralization as well as community participation played an important role; it then presents the results of a case study in which community participation was called to replace the State in the fulfillment of urban demands; finally, it discusses the risk of changing competences between the spheres of government, third sector and community. Considering that it is absolutely necessary to decentralize decisions and to enhance democratic participation, the authors conclude that a decrease in urban management by the State, vis-à-vis market demands, is an extremely risky policy. The case study refers to a low income community in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, Brazil, that has organized itself in order to guarantee the provision of potable water.