Legislative asymmetries and democratic deficit in the interdepartmental governance of RMVPLN

Abstract The present work discusses interdepartmental governance, popular participation and social control in the institutionalization and functioning of the Metropolitan Region of the Paraíba Valley and North Coast -RMVPLN (acronym in Portuguese), São Paulo, Brazil, in view of the resumption of neoliberal policies in their most orthodox version. It starts with the analysis of the normative-institutional design and of the virtual mismatch between the discourse of the legal frameworks that instituted and regulated the functioning of the RMVPLN and the guarantees of popular participation and social control enunciated in the Federal Constitution and in the Statutes of the City and Metropolis. The article emphasizes the impact that the democratic deficit present in these asymmetries can have on the public policies of regional scope and on the consequent fulfilment of socio-territorial justice.