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Copyright of Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente is the property of Universidade Federal do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Assisted self-help housing is a process whereby people are actively involved in the decision-making of their homes' consolidation, receiving tools to better manage resources in building them. While such support is embedded within urban and regional systems, evolving forms of state intervention have received little attention in the literature. In this article, we focus on federal assisted self-help housing programmes in Mexico, where this approach became formalised by the early 2000s. Recent governments positioned assisted self-help housing – at least on paper – as key for Mexico's housing agenda. What we term Mexico's housing governability system has continuously evolved, yet its capacity to address housing needs is challenged. We show that policy and institutional change in Mexico reflect a continuing pathway over several decades to include assisted self-help policies in the housing governability system. We highlight the nonlinear nature of policy development and the paradoxes of formalising flexible selfhelp approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the central government's intervention in the operation of failed local authorities affect the functioning of local democracy? We examined the theoretical and practical factors associated with the opportunities and risks inherent in an intervention policy in Israel called convened committees. We developed an index called the Effective Number of Council Parties by Seats at the Municipal Level (ENCPSML) and a number of measures that together express the degree of democratic representation, governability and voter turnout. We compare the functioning of democracy before and after the convened committees in 31 local authorities and a control group of 191 local authorities during four elections in 2003-2018. Contrary to what one might expect, convened committees did not hurt the exercise of democracy and in some cases, improved it. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of these findings in the context of multi-level governance, local democracy, regulation and coping with local crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista CS is the property of Rafael Silva Vega and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)