Contrary to the famous saying, "In Brazil, even the past is uncertain", we can demonstrate that the future, at least in the short term, is quite predictable. This Discussion Paper presents the framework for agenda-setting anticipation through methodologies of actor mapping and agenda tracking,...

The article analyses the Programa Nacional de Produção e Uso do Biodiesel (PNPB), an agro-energy policy with social aims, through the study of the political and technical capabilities of its institutional arrangement. The article verifies if the arrangement is able to combine the demands of...

This paper focus on aspects of metropolitan governance of the United States and Canada highlighting strategies of cooperation and criteria used in their experiences of management and institutionalization. Thus, it describes both the governance experiences implemented voluntarily or compulsorily,...

Many public policies seek to promote, maintain, modify or improve collective actions. The development of a country requires actions that are complex and wide in scope. This and following texts sort out: i) two general classes of problem-situations that lack collective action; and ii) kinds of...

The problem of coordination concerns how to make actions or choices of social agents (individuals or organizations) match in the right way. Some problems of coordination are also problems of separation. In many cases of lack of coordination, communication is faulty or not very reliable....

Since redemocratization in Brazil, forms of interaction between the state and civil society have become an integral part of the public administration structure. The literature on participatory processes has discussed the institutionalization of public participation as a key notion in such...

This article verifies the different effects of legal repression over homicide rates across Brazilian states. We analyze the impacts of two different kinds of legal repression: incapacitation (rate of individuals serving time in jail in relation to 100,000 inhabitants) and deterrence (rate of...

This article discusses the insertion of social participation in the construction of multiannual plans – Planos Plurianuais (PPAs) – of the states relative to the period of 2012-2015 in Brazil. It describes what has been done in ten states in Brazil in terms of social participation from the...

Problems of collective action are at the roots of several public policies and, as shown in this text, there are many mechanisms and tools to be used in order to solve those problems. Although three groups of mechanisms and tools have not been stressed in the usual debates of public policy, they...