Federalism and social assistance councils: an analysis from financing

Abstract Federalism and social participation are relevant themes in public policy studies. However, there is little dialogue between these themes, a gap that this article aims to minimize when analyzing the effects of fiscal centralization of social assistance on the functioning and results produced by the councils. Would the federative dynamics of this policy also be reproduced in the councils, differentiating national and subnational institutions? To answer this question, the article adopts qualitative analysis to identify the strengthening or the constraint of fiscal centralism in excerpts of 658 minutes and 2,364 resolutions of five cases: CNAS; the state councils of Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul; and the municipalities of Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre. The results indicate that the strong regulation of social assistance and the concentration of expenditures at the central level have important effects, promoting the strengthening of CNAS and constraints to the work of subnational councils in the definition and control of this policy in their financing.