REGULATORY COUNCILS AND REGIMES - DECISION STANDARDS IN LARGE MUNICIPALITIES

This article argues that subnational standardization regimes of a state character can considerably modify the performance of policy management councils at the municipal level. This argument has relevant implications, as accumulated knowledge concerning councils rests on the premise of the prevalence of national standardization regimes, responsible for producing local convergence in the performance of these institutions, per policy sector. Unpublished results are presented, comparing the decision-making of 77 councils, through the examination of about 15 thousand resolutions, in five large municipalities, namely Fortaleza, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Goiânia and Guarulhos, chosen from an intentional sample according to data availability. Specifically, the volume and scope of resolutions are examined based on a typology of councils that allows aggregating decisions and projecting expected results, as well as the dispersion of these two attributes among councils belonging to the same sector. The decision pattern found herein confirms that the standard description of the councils, informed by a narrative focused at the national level, corresponds to a significant portion of all councils, although some of them exhibit anomalous decision-making activity, plausibly enlivened by state normative regimes.