Why do governments grant land rights in informal settlements – and why do they stop doing so? This thesis examines the development of urban land regularization policies in Mexico City and São Paulo from the 1970s to the early 2020s. Although this policy is expected to persist due to social demand, political appeal, and effects on the land market, its implementation has stalled in Mexico City while expanding in São Paulo, despite similar processes of urbanization, decentralization, and democratization.

This thesis argues that these contrasting outcomes stem from institutional intercurrence – the coexistence and conflict of overlapping institutional frameworks – and from the interplay between policy advocates and veto players embedded across domains such as property law, urban planning, and environmental policy. Drawing on comparative historical analysis, over one hundred interviews, and document analysis, the study traces five decades of policy development in Latin America’s two largest cities. 

Institutional conflicts were present from the start, as land regularization clashed with property and planning rules that defined informality itself. Overcoming these foundational tensions was key to institutionalization in both cities, albeit under different political configurations. Mexico’s centralized authoritarian regime achieved this by swiftly overriding competing rules and negotiating with few veto players. In decentralized and democratic São Paulo, fragmented authority induced incremental consolidation through successive legal reforms and coalition-building with key legal actors led by government officials allied with social movements.

Since the 2000s, environmental policy has emerged as a new axis of friction. Democratization and decentralization empowered environmental agencies in Mexico City, which imposed stringent requirements that effectively paralyzed regularization. In São Paulo, by contrast, officials leveraged networks across government levels to adapt environmental frameworks and extend land rights.

The thesis develops a theoretical framework linking outcomes of institutional conflicts to two variables: the degree of intercurrence – low when competing rules merely constrain, high when they obstruct policy implementation – and the relative strength of advocates versus defenders of competing frameworks. The findings show how institutional frictions and power dynamics shape the distribution of urban land rights over the long run and illuminate tensions between redistributive and ecological goals in contemporary urban governance. By conceptualizing intercurrence as a driver of policy change, the thesis contributes to theories of urban governance, institutional development, and distributive politics, offering a lens to understand how the accumulation and interaction of diverse policies reshape public action in cities, where multiple sectors and levels of government converge. 

Urban agriculture (UA) is increasingly recognized in policy and academic discussions for its potential to promote sustainable food systems and reduce food insecurity. Due to their proximity to citizens, local governments are well-positioned to advance these initiatives. However, the factors that drive governments in densely populated cities to develop UA policies remain relatively understudied, especially in the Global South. To address this gap, we employ a comparative case study approach based on key informant interviews and documents to examine how local government actors pursue UA policies in the Brazilian cities of Recife, Rio de Janeiro, and Curitiba. We find that certain municipal bureaucrats act as “policy entrepreneurs,” emerging as pivotal figures in creating, maintaining, and adapting municipal UA policies in Brazilian cities. These policy entrepreneurs use a number of strategies to advance their policy preferences, secure resources, and legitimize their actions within the public administration. These approaches include collaborating with civil society, forging partnerships within and outside of government, framing their proposals within international policy guidelines, and leveraging media coverage and external recognition. In doing so, policy entrepreneurs shape UA policies by introducing new programs, making them resilient to changes related to electoral turnover, and diversifying initiatives from direct government support for gardeners to, for example, incorporating UA into urban planning regulations. This article thus provides valuable insights for policymakers and underscores the crucial role of local government bureaucrats, particularly those acting as policy entrepreneurs, in shaping policies that contribute to making cities sustainable. 

DOI: 10.17645/up.8166

How do bureaucrats implement public policy when faced with political intermediation? This article examines this issue in the distribution of land rights to informal settlements in the municipality of São Paulo, Brazil. Land regularization is a policy established over three decades, where politicians’ requests for land titles to their constituencies play a relevant role. Based on interviews and documents, this study finds that bureaucrats adopt a twofold approach to regulate distribution: they document informal settlements, enacting eligibility criteria; then, they manage and prioritize beneficiaries, accommodating qualifying political demands. In this process, they enforce eligibility rules consistently across cases, constraining political intermediation to a rational scheme. Therefore, bureaucrats reconcile nonprogrammatic politics and policy rules by separating eligibility assessment from beneficiary selection. This paper bridges urban distributive politics and street-level bureaucracy literature by revealing that policy implementers may use technical expertise to curb political influence and negotiate conflicting interests and constraints.

DOI: 10.1017/lap.2023.35

Socio-environmental disasters associated with events such as floods, mass movements and mudslides cause significant losses for the population and impose significant challenges for public administration every year in Brazil. The local level of government is a central sphere for the coordination of multiple actors involved in disaster risk management. Especially in Brazil, where municipalities have great autonomy and attributions in the production of public policies and, at the same time, have limited capacities, understanding the governance challenges faced at the local level becomes a key factor in addressing socio-environmental disasters. The article addresses the socio-environmental disaster risk management policy in municipal governments, focusing on governance as one of the fundamental pillars. It analyzes four cases of municipalities, with different profiles in terms of population and economic development, located in the metropolis of São Paulo, which concentrates about 10% of the country's population and registers a substantial number of disaster occurrences. Based on secondary data, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews conducted with civil servants from different agencies and federal entities, the governance of the policy at the local level and its challenges are discussed considering five dimensions: intra-municipal coordination; inter-municipal articulation; inter-federative pact; relationship with non-state actors; cooperation with control agencies and legislative power. The results point to a governance centered on disaster preparedness and response in the municipalities analyzed, endowed with instruments and some coordination mechanisms between the different actors, as well as a clearer division of functions. In contrast, risk prevention and mitigation are restricted, and factors that contribute to explain the limits of governance in this context have been identified. Facing these challenges will contribute to the effectiveness of the socio-environmental disaster risk management policy, reducing the impacts that usually affect the most vulnerable population.

DOI: 10.5380/dma.v60i0.83687

In the city of São Paulo, about 10% of households are either closed or vacant. A large part of them is located in areas well provided with infrastructure and services, while part of the population lives in precarious settlements and without access to basic services. In 2014, the city hall proceeded with the implementation of urban planning instruments to reduce property vacancy and, by this means, it intended to expand the offer of housing. Based on a case study developed with document research, complemented by interviews with key actors and participant observation, this article describes and analyzes the implementation of the instruments of the social function of property between the years 2014 to 2016, exploring the institutional arrangement constituted to carry out this initiative, and the quantitative results for the period from 2014 to 2019. Observing the trajectory of the urban planning sector in São Paulo, we argue that this institutional arrangement represents an expansion of the sector's scope of action and was a pillar fundamental for the application of the instruments, which achieved expressive results and consolidated itself as a relevant experience in the national context. 

DOI: 10.15847/cct.20498