The challenge of facilitating a shift towards sustainable housing, food and mobility has been taken up by diverse community-based initiatives ranging from "top-down" approaches in low-carbon municipalities to "bottom-up" approaches in intentional communities. This paper compares intervention measures in four case study areas belonging to these two types, focusing on their potential of re-configuring daily housing, food, and mobility practices. Taking up critics on dominant intervention framings of diffusing low-carbon technical innovations and changing individual behavior, we draw on social practice theory for the empirical analysis of four case studies. Framing interventions in relation to re-configuring daily practices, the paper reveals differences and weaknesses of current low-carbon measures of community-based initiatives in Germany and Austria. Low-carbon municipalities mainly focus on introducing technologies and offering additional infrastructure and information to promote low-carbon practices. They avoid interfering into residents¿ daily lives and do not restrict carbon-intensive practices. In contrast, intentional communities base their interventions on the collective creation of shared visions, decisions, and rules and thus provide social and material structures, which foster everyday low-carbon practices and discourage carbon-intensive ones. The paper discusses the relevance of organizational and governance structures for implementing different types of low-carbon measures and points to opportunities for broadening current policy strategies.

The local level has gained prominence in climate policy and governance in recent years as it is increasingly perceived as a privileged arena for policy experimentation and social and institutional innovation. However, the success of local climate governance in industrialized countries has been limited. One reason may be that local communities focus too much on strategies of technology-oriented ecological modernization and individual behavior change and too little on strategies that target unsustainable social practices and their embeddedness in complex socioeconomic patterns. In this paper we assess and compare the strategies of "low-carbon municipalities" (top-down initiatives) and those of "intentional communities" (bottom-up initiatives). We were interested to determine to what extent and in which ways each community type intervenes in social practices to curb carbon emissions and to explore the scope for further and deeper interventions on the local level. Using an analytical framework based on social practice theory we identify characteristic patterns of intervention for each community type. We find that low-carbon municipalities face difficulties in transforming carbon-intensive social practices. While offering some additional low-carbon choices, their ability to reduce carbon-intensive practices is very limited. Their focus on efficiency and individual choice shows little transformative potential. Intentional communities, by contrast, have more institutional and organizational options to intervene in the web of social practices. Finally, we explore to what extent low-carbon municipalities can learn from intentional communities and propose strategies of hybridization for policy innovation to combine the strengths of both models.

The aim of this diploma thesis was to evaluate aggregate data on municipal grants revenue, to assess their variability in time and cross-sectional comparisons and to find factors that influence their size and dynamics. For the analysis, the data of 1 000 municipalities in the time period from 2001 to 2016 were used. Fourteen factors were identified that could influence municipal grants. Grants were grouped into items, and factor influence was monitored separately for non-investment and investment grants. A panel regression analysis was used to assess the influence of determinants, examining the dependency between the explained variables (non-investment and investment grants) and the clarification variables (individual factors). The performed analysis has shown that the non-investment grants are influenced especially by the following factors: the jurisdiction of the municipality to a particular region, the scope of delegated competences, the establishment of a school, the population of the municipality, the population aged 0-14 and 65 years or more, elections to House of Commons, built gasification and sewerage. In the case of investment grants, the following variables have been identified as statistically significant: the scope of delegated competence, the existence of a school, the municipality's area, the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union and elections to the regional councils.

I dagens samhälle finns det ett stort behov av att arbeta hållbart på flera olika samhällsnivåer, inte minst på lokal nivå. Vid stadsutveckling är det viktigt att kommunerna arbetar utifrån den ekonomiska-, miljömässiga- och sociala dimensionen för att åstadkomma en hållbar stadsutveckling. Eftersom stadsutveckling syftar till att skapa en god levnadsstandard för samtliga kommuninvånare är det viktigt att invånarna är delaktiga i hållbarhetsarbetet. En viktig del i hållbarhetsarbetet är att skapa ett effektivt samspel mellan kommunens intressenter som skapar förutsättningar för kunskapsutbyte och integration, vilket i sin tur leder till utvecklingen av ett bättre samhälle. Dessutom bör kommuner vara kapabla till att integrera människor med varierande etiska, religiösa och socioekonomiska bakgrunder i den hållbara staden. Syftet med studien är att undersöka den inbyggda komplexiteten med att engagera intressenter i det kommunala hållbarhetsarbetet vid stadsutveckling. Eftersom studien syftar till att ge en ingående beskrivning av studiens problemområde har en deskriptiv forskningsstrategi valts. Studien bygger på en abduktiv ansats och forskningsmetoden är av kvalitativ karaktär. Empirisk data har insamlats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem respondenter från två kommuner samt genom innehållsanalyser av information på kommunernas hemsidor och årsrapporter. Studiens slutsatser är att samverkan mellan kommuner och deras intressenter är nödvändig för att utveckla en hållbar stad. Dessutom pekar resultatet på att utvärdering av den sociala aspekten inom hållbarhetsarbetet är en viktig komponent som behöver utvecklas och anpassas för att underlätta uppföljningsarbetet. Härutöver är slutsatsen att kommuners kommunikation med invånarna behöver anpassas och utvecklas utifrån invånarnas behov för att underlätta informationsutbyte mellan parterna. / To work sustainably today is of great need at various levels of society, especially at local level. Municipalities work with the economic-, environmental- and social dimensions of sustainability in order to achieve sustainable urban development. Since urban development aims at creating good living standards for city residents, it is important that residents are involved in the sustainability work executed by municipalities. An important part of sustainability is to create effective interactions among the municipality’s stakeholders that create the conditions for knowledge sharing and integration, leading to a better society. Furthermore, municipalities need to integrate people with varying ethical, religious and socio-economic backgrounds in the sustainable city. The purpose of the study is to investigate the complexity of engaging stakeholders in the municipal sustainability work with urban development. Since the study aims at giving a detailed description of the study problem area, a descriptive research strategy was chosen. The study is based on an abductive approach and the research method is qualitative. Empirical data has been gathered through semi-structured interviews with five respondents from two municipalities and through content analysis of information disclosed in municipal websites and annual reports. The study’s conclusions are that cooperation between municipalities and their stakeholders is necessary to develop a sustainable city. The results also indicate that the evaluation of the social aspect of sustainability is an important component that still needs to be developed. Measuring social sustainability is a condition to achieve impactful results with sustainability work. Lastly, the study clearly shows that municipalities’ communication with residents needs to be constantly developed based on the needs of residents to facilitate an effective information exchange.

Esta pesquisa partiu da reflexão sobre a aplicabilidade dos conceitos de sustentabilidade, utilizando como foco a cidade. Pela primeira vez na história, em 2008 a população urbana ultrapassou a rural em níveis mundiais. No Brasil, cerca de 80% da população vive em áreas urbanas, sendo que 75% dos municípios brasileiros possuem até vinte mil habitantes. A Agenda 21 e a Agenda Habitat para Municípios abordam que os atuais padrões de desenvolvimento degradam os recursos naturais, afetando as condições de vida da população nas cidades. Esses documentos alertam para que haja respeito pela capacidade de absorção dos ecossistemas. A Pegada Ecológica, desenvolvida por Mathis Wackernagel e William Rees, é uma ferramenta de análise que permite estimar, em termos de área produtiva correspondente, o consumo de recursos e a capacidade de assimilação dos impactos ambientais gerados por uma determinada população ou economia. Para se utilizar essa ferramenta, de forma a ser implementada nas cidades brasileiras, é preciso adaptá-la, para que seja inserida em um instrumento de política urbana local, o Plano Diretor. O objetivo da presente pesquisa é desenvolver um método de avaliação da sustentabilidade ambiental para pequenos municípios, baseado na Pegada Ecológica, inserido no processo de elaboração de Planos Diretores de Desenvolvimento Urbano. O procedimento metodológico utilizado foi a pesquisa construtiva, dividida nas etapas de inspeção, a qual se refere à compreensão do processo, por meio da revisão da literatura; seguida da etapa de imaginação, onde é possível criar alternativas de transformação do processo atual, a qual contou com a experiência de especialistas; e finalmente, pela etapa de aplicação, em que se colocam em prática as alternativas desejadas. Nesta etapa houve a aplicação da ferramenta em município de pequeno porte (Feliz/RS). A contribuição da pesquisa se refere à apresentação detalhada da aplicação de uma ferramenta de avaliação da sustentabilidade ambiental, a qual discretiza as atividades mais sustentáveis, considerando-as como de reduzido impacto ambiental, e contribui na compreensão de que as decisões de planejamento afetam todo um sistema, que vai além das fronteiras políticas. / This research resulted from the reflection on the applicability of sustainable concepts focused on the city. For the first time in history, in 2008 urban population surpassed rural population at the global level. Around 80 percent of the Brazilian population lives in urban areas, considering that 75 percent of the Brazilian municipalities have up to twenty thousand inhabitants. Agenda 21 and Agenda Habitat for Municipalities address that the current development standards damage natural resources, and thus affect life conditions of the urban population. These documents stress the need to respect ecosystems absorption capability. The Ecological Footprint is an analysis tool developed by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees. It enables to estimate resource consumption and assimilation capability of environmental impacts generated by a specific population or economy, in terms of corresponding productive land. Its implementation in Brazilian cities requires it to be adapted in order to incorporate it in a local urban policy instrument, the Master Plan. The aim of this research is to develop an assessment method of environmental sustainability in small municipalities. It was based on the Ecological Footprint incorporated in the elaboration process of Urban Master Plans. The methodological procedure used was the constructive research, which was divided in inspection, imagination and intervention: the first phase refers to the process comprehension through the review of previous research and references. The second phase refers to the development of alternatives for changing the current process, which had the support of experts' experience. Finally, the third phase refers to the application of the planned alternatives. In the latter phase, the tool was applied in a small municipality (Feliz/RS). The contribution of this research refers to a detailed presentation of an assessment tool of environmental sustainability which points out more sustainable activities, reckoning them as having less impact on environment. The study also contributes in showing that planning decisions affect a whole system, which goes beyond political boundaries.

In 2001, George W. Bush, the former president of the United States, declared war on terrorism after the 9/11 attack at the World Trade Centre in New York. Since then, terrorism and terrorist attacks have perceived to be rather frequent and the problem of radicalization has become a new phenomenon in societies, especially the western societies. Therefore, in 2014, the Swedish government decided to create a National Strategy Against Violent Extremism (NSAVE) which was released in 2016. In this strategy, it is argued that the main responsibility of the preventative-work against radicalization is directed at the local levels in Sweden, which is the municipalities. The research on the implementation of the strategy is however limited to non-existing. Therefore, this study is conducting a review of the national strategy and two case- studies with a qualitative approach to get an understanding of how municipalities are working with prevention of radicalization and violent extremism as well as how the national strategy is implemented at the local levels. The data collection that is used is semi-structured interviews with professionals working within two municipalities in Sweden. The findings show that the two municipalities are working with prevention of radicalization but use different strategies. The result is analyzed with the theoretical approach of inclusion and exclusion. The result shows that both municipalities are using the inclusive and development approach in their strategies. The last part of the thesis argues for recommendations in future work on national, regional and local levels as well as direct recommendations towards the two municipalities.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-07T14:49:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1883674 bytes, checksum: 2362a26006aaddf6111de6604e43492b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The environmental licensing acts as a tool where the government exercises its police power to preventively protect the environment. Nationally arises with the Law. 6.938/81, where it ranked as one of the instruments of the National Policy for the Environment and approved by the Federal Constitution of 1988, when given to the government and society the duty of caring for the environment. The municipality has historically been inactive in this context and is conquering its space legislatively with Complementary Law No. 140/2011 to exercise their environmental competencies. The SUDEMA is responsible for environmental licensing in the state of Paraíba, this model of centralized environmental management does not allow its performance meets efficiently and effectively the entire state. This article consists in the observation and analysis of the environmental licensing process and its decentralization in the state of Paraíba, to demonstrate the reality of this issue and contribute to the improvement of the same. To achieve this goal, the research was conducted with the public organizations of the state and municipalities of João Pessoa, Campina Grande, Patos e Cajazeiras, adopting as methodological investigation, the bibliographical and documentary research, the testimonial research, through testimonies and interviews with application a structured questionnaire, the participant observation and action research. Of the 223 municipalities in Paraíba, only 28 have environmental agencies and only 3 of them exercise environmental licensing, are they: João Pessoa, Campina Grande e Patos. These data are fundamental to the understanding of society in general and for the development of public policies that help the municipalization of the environmente of the form legitimate and effective. / O licenciamento ambiental atua como uma ferramenta onde o poder público exerce o seu poder de polícia de forma preventiva na proteção ao meio ambiente. Nacionalmente surge com a Lei nº. 6.938/81, que o classificou como um dos instrumentos da Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente e recepcionado pela Constituição Federal de 1988, quando dado ao poder público e a coletividade o dever de cuidar do meio ambiente. O município esteve historicamente inativo nesse contexto e vem conquistando o seu espaço legislativamente com a Lei Complementar nº 140/2011 para exercer suas competências ambientais. A SUDEMA é responsável pelo licenciamento ambiental no estado da Paraíba, esse modelo de gestão ambiental centralizado não permite que sua atuação atenda de forma eficiente e eficaz a demanda do estado inteiro. O presente trabalho consiste na observação e análise do processo de licenciamento ambiental e sua descentralização no estado da Paraíba, a fim de demonstrar a realidade dessa questão e contribuir com o aprimoramento desse instrumento de gestão ambiental. Para alcançar essa meta, a pesquisa foi realizada junto aos órgãos públicos ambientais estaduais e dos municípios de João Pessoa, Campina Grande, Patos e Cajazeiras, adotando como investigação metodológica, a pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, a pesquisa testemunhal, por meio de depoimentos e entrevistas com a aplicação de questionário estruturado, a observação participante e a pesquisa-ação. Dos 223 municípios paraibanos, apenas 28 possuem órgão ambiental e somente 3 deles executam o licenciamento ambiental, sendo eles: João Pessoa, Campina Grande e Patos. Esses dados são fundamentais para o conhecimento da sociedade de uma forma geral e para o desenvolvimento de políticas públicas que acompanhem a municipalização do meio ambiente de forma legítima e eficaz.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:34:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MariaFMQ_DISSERT.pdf: 997471 bytes, checksum: 5fe0890adc480c4e96f6e96f1d47ee74 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-18 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The overall objective of this study is to analyze the efficiency in the use of resources and the quality of public health in the municipalities of Rio Grande do Norte, from 2004 to 2008. It also seeks to identify the determinants of municipal inefficiency and measure the productivity of public spending on health. To this end, three methods of analysis are used: the DEA, the Malmquist index and the Tobit regression model. Among other findings, it appears that municipalities considered more inefficient in the measurement of expenditure on health make the largest expense in this function. On the other hand, from 2004 to 2008, only 13 municipalities showed an increase in the productivity of public spending. It is also noted that municipalities considered efficient in quality of health, although having more physical and human resources, offer fewer health services to the population. In all, the major determinants of health spending inefficiencies are the variables: age of the mayor, coalition, population density, literacy race and budget revenues. Regarding the inefficiency of the health quality, variables such as: coalition, literacy race have strong influence on this behavior. Thereby, the hypotheses proposed by the study have been fully accepted. In other words, for the efficiency of the quality and health spending it is needed more than resources, i.e., the expenditure shows itself as essential, but not enough, for political and economic aspects also interfere with the performance of spent and in the quality of health care offered to the population / O objetivo geral deste estudo ? analisar a efici?ncia na utiliza??o dos recursos e na qualidade da sa?de p?blica nos munic?pios do estado do Rio Grande do Norte, no per?odo de 2004 e 2008. Procura-se ainda identificar os determinantes da inefici?ncia dos munic?pios e mensurar a produtividade do gasto p?blico em sa?de. Utiliza-se de tr?s m?todos de an?lise: o DEA, o ?ndice de Malmquist e o modelo de regress?o Tobit. Entre outros resultados, constata-se que munic?pios considerados mais ineficientes na mensura??o do disp?ndio em sa?de efetuam maiores gastos nessa fun??o. Por outro lado, no per?odo de 2004 e 2008, apenas 13 munic?pios apresentaram um aumento na produtividade do gasto p?blico. Nota-se ainda que munic?pios considerados eficientes na qualidade da sa?de, embora possuam mais recursos f?sicos e humanos, ofertam menos servi?os de sa?de ? popula??o. No mais, os principais determinantes da inefici?ncia do gasto em sa?de s?o as vari?veis: idade do prefeito, coliga??o, densidade populacional, taxa de alfabetiza??o da popula??o e receita or?ament?ria. E quanto ? inefici?ncia da qualidade da sa?de, as vari?veis como coliga??o, taxa de alfabetiza??o da popula??o e receita or?ament?ria exercem forte influ?ncia sobre esse comportamento. Desse modo, as hip?teses lan?adas ao longo do estudo foram plenamente aceitas. Em outros termos, para que haja a efici?ncia do gasto e da qualidade em sa?de, ? necess?rio mais do que recurso, ou seja, o disp?ndio mostra-se como condi??o indispens?vel, mas n?o suficiente, pois aspectos pol?ticos e econ?micos tamb?m interferem no desempenho do gasto e na qualidade da sa?de ofertada ? popula??o

Durante muito tempo, os membros das câmaras de vereadores brasileiras tiveram suas atuações políticas limitadas à circunscrição territorial dos seus respectivos municípios. Isso se deve muito à forma de organização e à outorga de competências conferidas aosentes federativos. O modelo de federação criado no Brasil apresenta peculiaridades em relação a outros modelos existentes no mundo. Uma das mais evidentes é o reconhecimento constitucional dos municípios como ente integrante de sua estrutura, dotando-os de autonomia em relação aos Estados-membros e à União, bem como conferidas atribuições políticas e administrativas próprias. Esse status transformou consideravelmente o papel das municipalidades brasileiras após o advento da Constituição de 1988. Mas, infelizmente, a forma de distribuição dos recursos públicos do país concentra grande parte das receitas nos entes federativos de maior dimensão, em especial da União. Essa desproporcionalidade impede que as municipalidades exerçam, de forma plena, todas as missões que lhes foram outorgadas. Em consequência,eles sentem o peso das várias incumbências a serem desenvolvidas, sem que possuam as verbas suficientes para isso. Uma das soluções para minimizar essa situação está na iniciativa dese integrarem a outros entes para que, de forma conjunta, concretizem as políticas públicas necessárias à população. Atualmente, verifica-se que muitos problemas existentes nos municípios são comuns a todos que estejam situados em determinada região. Esse fenômeno ocorre principalmente quando a expansão urbana gerou as conurbações, interligando os municípios de uma forma tal que acabam compartilhando, os anseios e mazelas. Prevendo essa situação, o constituinte brasileiro de 1988 outorgouaos Estados-membros a prerrogativa de instituir as regiões metropolitanas e outras formas de unidade territorial urbana.Possibilitou, comoisso, a criação de uma organização administrativa que pudesse desenvolverações estatais de dimensão regional, conjugando os esforços dos entes federativos envolvidos para a consecução do bem comum. Aproveitando a existência dessas regionalidades administrativas, surgiunas câmaras de vereadores o anseio de ampliar seu campo de atuação para levar à discussão regional os temas inerentes a todos os municípios que as integram.Assim, criaram-se em algumas partes do país, os parlamentos metropolitanos.Consistem em um fórum de discussão e atuação integrada das edilidades municipais inseridas nessas unidades territoriais urbanas. A presente pesquisa tem como objeto central analisar a formação e atuação desses parlamentos, bem como os resultados já alcançados por alguns, além de sugerir propostas que venham fortalecer o seu papel. Essas instituições podem contribuir consideravelmente para o aperfeiçoamento da denominada governança interfederativa das regiões metropolitanas, nos termos que são propostos pelo Estatuto das Metrópoles (Lei Federal n. 13.089/15). Trata-sede um vetor de colaboração e associação entre os entes e órgãos de poder integrantes da região metropolitana, em busca de concretizar as funções públicas de interesse comumem prol da população nela inserida. / For a long time, members of the Brazilian assembly of councilors had had their political actions limited to the territorial circumscription of the respective municipalities. this is due much to the bestow of conferred competences to federal entities. The federation model created in Brazil shows peculiarities in relation to other existing models in the world. One of the most evident is the constitutional recognition of municipalities as integrant entity to its structure, providing them with autonomy in relation to the Member States and the Union as well as attributions conferred the own political and administrative duties. This status has transformed considerably the role of the Brazilian municipality after the advent of the Constitution of 1988. But unfortunately, the way of distribution of public resources of the country focus its great part of the revenues in the larger dimension federal entities, particularly of the Union. This disproportionality prevents that the municipality exerts, fully, all the missions that were bestowed to them. As a result, they feel the weight of the various tasks to be developed without having sufficient funds for it. One of the solutions to minimize this situation is the initiative to join the other entities ones so that, jointly, they can concretize the public policies necessary to the population. Currently, check itself that existing problems in the cities are common to all who are located in a given region. This phenomenon occurs, principally when urban sprawl generated the conurbations, linking municipalities in such a way that end up sharing the anxieties and ills. Anticipating this situation, the Brazilian constituent 1988 has bestowed to the Member States the prerogative to institute the metropolitan areas and other urban land unit. Allowed, therewith, the creation of an administrative organization that could develop state actions with a regional dimension, conjugating the efforts of the federal entities involved in an attainment the common good. Taking advantage of the existence of these administrative regionalities arose in the councilors chambers the desire to enlarge their actuation field to take the regional debate the issues inherent to all municipalities that comprise it. Thereby, were created in some parts of the country, metropolitan parliaments. They consist of a discussion forum and integrated performance of the inserted town council these urban units. This research has as its central object to analyze the formation and actuation of these parliaments and the results already achieved by some, besides suggesting proposals that will strengthen its role. These institutions can contribute substantially to the improvement of the so called interfederativa governance of metropolitan areas, in the terms that are proposed by the Statute of the Metropolis (Federal Law n. 13.089/15). Its about a collaborative vector and association among entities and organs of integrated power of the metropolitan area, seeking concretizing the public functions of common interest on behalf of the population.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Ao longo da história, poucos fenômenos despertaram tanto interesse dos cidadãos, dispenderam tantos recursos do Estado e contribuíram tanto para o atraso de seu desenvolvimento quanto o problema da corrupção dos agentes públicos. Nesta tese, uso o conceito de improbidade para definir um tipo particular de fenômeno e distingui-lo de outros geralmente abrangidos pelo conceito de corrupção. A partir daí procuro responder as seguintes questões: quais elementos influenciam o processo de tomada de decisão do agente público para que considere o engajamento em uma improbidade? Que fatores estão associados à ocorrência de improbidades na Administração Pública municipal brasileira? Sob a perspectiva da nova economia institucional, a primeira parte da tese procede com a análise conceitual e metodológica do fenômeno, consubstanciado no referencial analíticos das improbidades, sustentando que: a) as improbidades correspondem a um gênero de atitudes oportunistas, dentre as quais se destaca uma espécie denominada transação corrupta; b) o processo de tomada de decisão do agente público, inserido no contexto de racionalidade limitada, orienta-se igualmente por elementos da análise custo-benefício (maximização da utilidade esperada), da dinâmica dos processos de aprendizagem e da barreira ético-moral dos próprios indivíduos. As demais partes da tese apresentam os resultados de uma investigação empírica sistemática, baseada nas informações de uma amostra aleatória de 960 municípios brasileiros auditados pela Controladoria-Geral da União. A análise evidencia os fatores associados à ocorrência das improbidades, tanto sob o ponto vista da literatura tradicional (modernização, capital social e rent-seeking), quanto da nova perspectiva analítica proposta, baseada nos mecanismos de governança. O teste a partir dos modelos tradicionais da literatura demonstra: a) a associação negativa entre a ocorrência das improbidades e os indicadores de desempenho institucional e de desenvolvimento socioeconômico dos municípios (em consonância com os efeitos comumente atribuídos as improbidades); b) a associação negativa entre a ocorrência das improbidades e os indicadores de modernização e de capital social dos municípios (em consonância com as causas comumente atribuídas as improbidades); c) a não associação entre a ocorrência das improbidades nos municípios brasileiros e os indicadores de incentivo ao comportamento rent-seeking (em oposição à clássica proposição de que quanto maior o tamanho do Estado, maior será a ocorrência de improbidades em razão dos incentivos oriundos de seu monopólio). Com base nos resultados obtidos, incorporo os supostos neoinstitucionalistas a análise das improbidades, interpretando-os como decorrência da inadequação das estruturas de governança dos contratos. Assim, para além do impacto do arranjo institucional, que abarca o controle parlamentar, administrativo e jurisdicional interno e externo dos recursos públicos federais transferidos aos municípios, apresento evidências de que as variações observadas na contagem de improbidades nos municípios brasileiros estão diretamente relacionadas à qualidade de seus mecanismos de governança. Dentre esses, destacam-se aqueles de natureza democrática: os mecanismos de controle social (os conselhos municipais de políticas públicas); os mecanismos de promoção da transparência (a qualidade do governo eletrônico); e os mecanismos de accountability (a disputa político-eleitoral). De acordo com o referencial analítico das improbidades, a existência e operação desses mecanismos elevam os custos de transação do agente público que, mesmo superando as limitações da barreira ético-moral e de aprendizado, ainda considera um eventual engajamento nesse gênero de atitudes oportunistas. / Throughout history, few phenomena aroused so much interest among citizens and wasted so many resources of the State and contributed so much to the delay in its development as the problem of "corruption of public agents." In this thesis, I use the concept of improbity to define a particular type of phenomenon and distinguish it from others usually covered by reference to corruption. Thereafter I try to answer the following questions: what elements influence the decision-making process of the public agent to consider engaging in an improbity? What factors are associated with the occurrence of improbity in Brazilian local public administration? From the perspective of new institutional economics, the first part of the thesis proceeds with the conceptual and methodological analysis of the phenomenon, embodied in the analytical framework of improbity, arguing that: a) the improbity correspond to a kind of opportunistic attitudes, among which stands out a species called corrupt transaction b) the decision-making process of the public agent, placed in the context of bounded rationality, is equally oriented by elements of cost-benefit analysis (maximization of expected utility), the dynamics of learning processes and their own ethical and moral barrier. Other parts of this thesis present the results of a systematic empirical investigation, based on information from a random sample of 960 municipalities audited by the General Controller Office. The analysis highlights the factors associated with the occurrence of improbity, both from the point of view of the traditional literature (modernization, social capital and rent-seeking), as the new analytical perspective proposed, based on governance mechanisms. The test from the traditional models of literature demonstrates: a) the negative association between the occurrence of improbity and indicators of institutional performance and socioeconomic development of the municipalities (in accordance with the effects commonly assigned to improbity), b) the negative association between the occurrence of improbity and indicators of modernization and social capital of the municipalities (in line with the causes commonly granted to improbity), c) the lack of association between the occurrence of improbity in Brazilian municipalities and indicators to encourage rent-seeker behavior (as opposed to the classical proposition that the greater the size of the State, the greater the occurrence of improbity because of incentives arising from its monopoly). Based on these findings, I have integrated the new institutionalism assumptions to the analysis of the improbity, interpreting them as failures of governance structures. Thus, beyond the impact of institutional arrangement that encompass the legislative control, administrative and judicial review of internal and external resources that Brazilian federal government transferred to municipalities, I have present evidences that the observed variations in the count of improbity in Brazilian municipalities are directly related to the quality of its governance arrangements. Among these, stand out from those of democratic nature like the mechanisms of social control (municipal councils of public policy); mechanisms for promoting transparency (the quality of e-government), and the accountability mechanism (the electoral dispute). According to the analytical framework of improbity, the existence and operation of these mechanisms raise the transaction costs of the public agents, even surpassing the limitations of ethical-moral barrier and learning.