O Estatuto da Cidade e a democratização das políticas urbanas no Brasil

Brazil has been affected by a very powerful movement for the democratisation of access to, and regulation of the use of, urban land. The origins of these processes lie in the organisation of the urban reform movement of the 1980s and its successful work in the National Constituent Assembly. This article first discusses the emergence and main characteristics of the urban reform movement in Brazil, analysing in detail how the relationship between the civil society associations and political actors changed during the course of the struggle for urban reform in Brazil. Secondly, it demonstrates how participation emerged out of the struggle for urban reform and how this generated participatory legislation in this area during the period in which the Constitution was being drafted and in the period immediately afterwards. Thirdly, it describes how the requirements of the Urban Master Plans were implemented in the cities of São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre and Salvador