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This article considers the experience of Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora (UPPs) (Pacifying Police Units) of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as an innovative form of policing designed to deal primarily with high crime rate in 'favelas.' It also attempts to ascertain the extent to which the UPPs reflect a strategy for police reform. It does so by (i) reviewing the security crisis which engendered the UPPs as well as their predecessors, describing the socio-economic hardships of the favelas, further aggravated by high crime rates; (ii) describing the institutional and political environment giving rise to the policing policy underpinning the UPPs, and (iii) by assessing this innovation against a backdrop of systemic police reform models, singling out missing elements to constitute a true police system reform. This review provides a record of police policy of successive state governments, showing that the adoption of the UPPs followed a reactive political pattern while falling short of the requirements for proactively deliberate and comprehensive reform. Contrary to most of the guiding reform principles and elements discussed, policing reform in the State of Rio de Janeiro has indeed been bound by innovative incrementalism, following a pendular pattern, with little sustainability and a record of fluctuating achievements. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past two decades, Brazil has experienced a wide range of new participatory management instruments. One of the most important are the so called public policy management councils, composed of governmental and non-governmental members, which have been implemented mainly in social sectors in order to discuss and develop public policies as well as to decide on the allocation of public funds. The practice shows that several structural factors still limit the potential of such a form of institutionalised participation. The most innovative result is without doubt the contribution towards transforming political culture, a prerequisite for the success of the ongoing democratisation process in most of the Latin American countries. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil became a highly decentralized country following democratization and the 1988 Constitution. The consequences of decentralization at the federal level are quite clear: the federal government is facing financial constraints and difficulties in building governing coalitions, allowing the Presidents to govern and to implement public policies, especially those concerning fiscal control. At the level of the states, however, the results of decentralization are quite heterogeneous given the country's high degree of regional inequality. The article identifies the cleavages and tensions surrounding federal-state relations, as well as the mutual dependency of the states and the federal government. It argues that the Brazilian experience of political and financial decentralization has contributed to the prospects of democratic consolidation and has forced the federal government to negotiate and compromise with subnational governments the implementation of national policies. On the other hand, the Brazilian experience highlights the constraints of decentralization in countries with deep-rooted regional disparities. Furthermore, the financial weakness of the federal government which has been brought about by decentralization and by fiscal control brings new tensions to the federal arrangements and to public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]