Historical Institutionalism and Urban Policy in Brazil: Institutional Layering and an Analytical Framework for Empirical Research
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Abstract
Formally instituted reforms enacted through federal regulations produce heterogeneous trajectories across Brazilian municipalities. This article develops historical institutionalism as a theoreticalanalytical framework for research on urban planning and urban policy management in Brazil, advancing the theoretical hypothesis that institutional layering constitutes a prevalent mechanism within the Brazilian territorial planning system. The object of analysis is delimited as the trajectory of urban policies and the mechanisms of gradual institutional change. Methodologically, the study is a theoretical essay grounded in a selective literature review and oriented toward the conceptual and systematic articulation of analytical axes. It synthesizes types of urban institutions — land and property, infrastructure, and governance — together with mechanisms of incremental change — layering, conversion, drift, and displacement — adapting them to the levels of discretion and veto structures of Brazilian federalism. The article concludes that this combination makes it possible to predict which mechanism tends to prevail within each institutional type, supporting a comparative research agenda across municipalities.
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