After all, is Metropolitan Governance possible?

Abstract

The failure of management and the challenges of metropolitan governance are the subject of discussion in this approach. To this end, the process of institutionalization of metropolitan regions and urban agglomerations in Brazil is revisited, from those originated under federal law in the 1970s, through those institutionalized by states laws, provided for in the 1988 federal Constitution, and culminating in the proliferation of metropolitan units at the beginning of this 21st century. The Metropolis Statute comes into focus, received with great expectation, given the advances, particularly in devices that clarified concepts, guided the distinction between territorial units, and the construction of a full management structure, providing for integrated planning, own inter-federative governance, the participation of society, and the hypothesis of penalty for administrative improbity in the case of non-compliance within the period established by law. These expectations were supplanted by the frustrations arising from changes to the law, which once again made governance challenges seemingly unachievable. It also highlights the gap in understanding, legal formulation, and urban and regional public policies, of the various spatial configurations that transcend, without discarding, the metropolitan nature, resulting from the speed of the socio-spatial processes of contemporary urbanization. In the final considerations, the elements that, if considered, would allow a positive answer to the question that gives title to the article are highlighted.