Competição política, grupos de interesse e a oferta de serviços públicos: uma análise para os municípios cearenses nos anos de 2005 E 2009

Abstract

The role of institutions in economic development is gaining more space in academic debates. In this discussion, the State plays a key role. To better understand the relationship between institutions, State and economic development, it is necessary to explore the factor that connects them, namely, politics. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between political competition, the action of interest groups and public provision of services in the counties. Political competition was measured by variables that indicate alternation of power in the executive and legislative branches, as well as the political alignment between the different spheres of government. Interest groups were denoted by donors, Individuals and Legal Entities, for the campaign of mayors and elected councilors, and the provision of public services was measured by the Index of Social Development of Supply (IDS-O). With information from the 184 cities in the state of Ceará, for the years of 2005 and 2009, the data was assembled in a panel which estimated considering random effects. There were two models: the city of Fortaleza was excluded from one of them because its economic performance was superior to the other cities’; in the results, however, there were no significant differences. The results also show that the municipalities that have lower competition level are those with higher IDS-O. Regarding the action of interest groups, the ones formed by corporations, provided they are not cohesive, are preferable to society since they influence public services in a positive way.