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Aspects of community planning in Brazil

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Aspects of community planning in Brazil

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Content ASPECTS OF COMMUNITY PLANNING IN BRAZIL
A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the School of Public Administration
University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science in Public Administration
by
Jose Eugenio de Macedo Soares
February 1954
UMI Number: EP64560
All rights reserved
INFORMATION TO ALL USERS
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed,
a note will indicate the deletion.
Dlssenatioifi PüMIsNng
UMI EP64560
Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author.
Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC.
All rights reserved. This work is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code
ProQuest LLC.
789 East Eisenhower Parkway
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346
lairman
1FL / 'J%r 1 5 6"% ;
This thesis, w ritte n by
lOrt
..Jose.Eugenio..P^ de ^ i
under the direction of the undersigned Guidance
Committee, and approved by a ll its members, has
been presented to and accepted by the F acu lty of
the School of P u b lic A d m in istra tio n in p a rtia l f u l
fillm e n t of the requirements fo r the degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN
PUBLIC ADM INISTRATION
Date Jme. 29#..-19.54.............................................
Guidance Committee : f I / Æ
TABLE OP CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE PROBLEM....................... 1
Introduction ................................ 3
The thesis.................................. 4
Limitations of the study ................... 6
Definitions of terms employed ............... 7
Organization of the remainder of the thesis • 12
Review of sources and methods............... 13
11. THE PLACE: GEOGRAPHICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHICAL
STUDY OP BRAZIL.............................. 15
Continental position ....................... 15
Physical aspect .............................. 15
Climate...................................... l6
Geographic regions ......................... 17
Mountain system .............................. 21
Economic development ....... ........ 22
Ethnography................... 23
III. THE MAN: HISTORIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND
OF THE PROBLEM.............................. 27
The discovery................................ 27
The inhabitants of Brazil ..... ........ 28
iv
CHAPTER PAGE
Colonization ................................ 29
The hereditary captaincies ................. 30
The Governors General ....................... 31
Portugal and its colonies under Spanish rule. 32
The yearning for independence............... 33
Exodus of the Portuguese Court to Brazil. . . 34
The independence............................ 34
The empire.................................. 35
The republic................................ 36
Political and social modifications ........ 37
Brazil in the last twenty years............. 38
IV. THE MUNICIPIO: ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL
ASPECTS...................................... 40
The colonial community ..................... 4l
Evolution 42 I
New trends 43 !
Local autonomy.............................. 44
Financial autonomy ......................... 46
Municipal organization ..................... 48
Municipal planning ......................... 49
V. BRAZILIAN COMMUNITY PROBLEMS ................. 51
VI. PLANNING TECHNIQUES ............................ 59
Natural elements . ....................... 60
V
CHAPTER PAGE
VII. THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY: AN EXAMPLE........... 70
Historic background ....................... , 70
Actual trends ................................ 71
Planning organization ........................ 73
Future of planning in America ............... 75
VIII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .............. 78
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................... 83
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
It is well known that one of the conditions of
progress of any country with an unbalanced economy and with
limited resources is efficiency in public administration.
Governmental agencies in such countries must give maximum
service to the public at large with a minimum burden on the
taxpayers. This is true at all levels of government and
especially in the lower or local level.
Brazil and other countries which today are referred
to as "underdeveloped" in international parlance, find
themselves faced with scores of problems related to educa
tion, public health, transportation, technical training,
means of communication, industrialization, general trade,
agriculture, social welfare, etc. In all fields, the lack
of technical knowledge and planning undermines the possi
bilities of progress and high standard of life. By and
large, the underdeveloped countries lack also the financial
resources to solve these urgent problems, a circumstance
which demands the highest skill in the management of their
public affairs. In fact, as these countries are pressed
by numerous problems, the solution of which calls for
varied technical knowledge as well as considerable
2
financial outlay, they must use the modest resources at
their disposal with the greatest wisdom and efficiency if
they are to succeed in improving their economic and social
standing. Brazil is no exception to this need. Like all
underdeveloped countries, it needs a public administration
of the highest calibre.
It must be recognized that not all of the less-
developed countries, particularly in our continent, have
succeeded in raising their public services to the level of
efficiency that would ensure the economical functioning of
their administrative machinery. On the contrary, the public
administration machinery of many underdeveloped countries,
Brazil included, is generally considered to be below the
level of efficiency required by national conditions and
problems. With the modern tendency to socialize all the
public services, the government burden is increasing every
year.
It goes without saying that the public administra
tion of any government will only be able to solve the dif
ficult problems affecting the public interest if it has at
its disposal, in addition to well-trained personnel, both
good and technical planning to cope with its responsibili
ties.
Furthermore, only good planning based on efficient
technical knowledge can direct public administration at all
3
levels to the required progress.
It was the purpose of this study to present some
aspects of community planning in Brazil and the possibili
ties of adapting the current techniques that have been
successful in the United States. For reasons understated,
the study was limited to the smallest unit that is adminis
tered by government, the community.
Introduction. The field of public administration is
very broad. In our day it covers, directly or indirectly,
almost every phase of human activity. And the modern ten
dency is to increase even more the range of government
authority by including in public administration such
activities that were reserved to private business. In a
general sense, the technical division of the field of pub
lic administration, mainly for teaching purposes, also
includes planning. It is very difficult to define planning
in terms of public administration since it covers every
branch of this area. Fields such as Budgeting, Personnel
Administration, Finance, Public Relations, Research, in
order to be efficient, very definitely need both short and
long range forecasting and, consequently, planning.
The author, aware of this problem, did not try to
limit his research purely to engineering procedures. On
the contrary, as much as possible, the study tried to cover
4
all the fields of public administration, emphasizing the
physical aspects.
The standards of living and the conditions of
progress in Brazil cannot be changed overnight. With an
area that covers approximately half of the southern part of
the continent and with a population of more than fifty
million, Brazil can be improved only by far-reaching pro
cedures. Planning, as a scientific method in every field,
is the only solution for any possible improvement. But the
methods adapted in other countries do not always have the
same results when transplanted to a country with such
peculiar characteristics. The study of local conditions
as a base for the introduction of new techniques is para
mount. Knowing these difficulties and these limitations,
the author has tried to present the actual conditions that
have a direct relation to future improvements, immutable
traditions, social tendencies, local peculiarities, and all
factors that play an important role in the field of
Planning.
The thesis. The author, bearing these limitations
in mind, did not pretend to cover all the aspects of plan
ning. On the contrary, the study was limited to an overall
observation of some aspects of the Brazilian community, its
formation, and the possibilities of improving the actual
5
conditions by introducing techniques that were successful
in other countries. The techniques are mainly American,
not only because the United States has had the most pro
gressive methods of administration, but also because the
two countries have had certain similarities, such as geo
graphic aspects and social formation, that naturally lead
to comparison.
But, it is safe to say that no organization, either
public or private, has ever reached the maximum of effi
ciency obtainable. Year after year, however, productivity
per employee-hour in industry has increased through the
improvement of machinery and adoption of better procedures
and work methods. Much of this improvement can be attrib
uted to recognition of principles of "scientific manage
ment." The essential concept of this approach to manage
ment is the basing of administrative decisions, actions,
and methods, insofar as possible, on an orderly process of
fact gathering, analysis, and planning. The value of such
administrative planning and research as an integral part of
the management process is fast gaining acceptance in every
field of public administration.
Since even in the United States planning is so new,
and many methods are still in the experimental phase, no
attempt was made to give specific solutions to specific
problems. This was not the intention of the author who, as
6
much as possible, tried to leave for the technicians of
every field the task of presenting reliable solutions. The
aim of the study was to emphasize the importance of local
factors in the field of planning. Selection and critical
study of these factors were the primary considerations of
this work.
Limitations of the study. Starting such a study,
the author was well aware of the limitations that would
arise as a result of doing research in one country far away
from the major sources of information. The subject was
quite extensive and covered practically every field of pub
lic administration. On the other hand, the literature was
rather limited and specialized in the engineering aspects
of planning. The needed information on Brazilian data and
problems was difficult to obtain and, in general, the
sources of information on such a diverse subject were too
dispersed. These reasons induced the author to limit the
work to a specific study of the community. Also, planning
was used in the sense of organizing for the future in a
long range program of administrative policies and proced
ures. Since the legal aspects and the financial aspects
in this case were the most important, special attention was
given to their study.
Summarizing briefly, the natural boundaries of the
7
study were limited by (l) the difficulty of conveying ideas
and situations of a far-away country, (2) the difficulty of
finding statistical data and other related studies on the
subject, (3) the selection of studying only the community,
and (4) the limitation of planning to the administrative
and finance aspects.
Nevertheless, the extension of the work, even with
these limitations, was enough to convey the principal
aspects of the subject. The inclusion of a brief but com
plete description of Brazil’s geography and history was
necessary to give a basic knowledge of the culture in which
the development of the country was made and of the tenden
cies that are part of the national characteristics. Being
a new field, much has yet to be said. The author antici
pates that in the near future more qualified persons will
advance the study of this important problem of Brazil.
Definition of terms employed. One of the most dif
ficult problems to solve was the natural language barrier
in a study that involved concepts in two countries and in
two different backgrounds. Public Administration was a
field in which the lack of a specialized vocabulary and the
scarcity of specific literature in the area made the task
much more difficult and, consequently, more incomplete. If
some terms, like "municipio," have their own definition
8
established in law; others, like Planning, depend exclu
sively on the interpretation of the textbook writers.
The definitions adapted in the study were the ones
that were suitable to the area of the work. One of the
main reasons for this work was to prove the difficulty of
establishing a comparative study and to adapt techniques
from another country before fixing values that were, in
their content, universal.
The nature of the work constrained the author to use
terms in a sense seldom employed, and he had to contrive
means of communicating ideas that were essentially local.
Aspects: In general, the term "aspects" is used as
a synonym of appearance, look, or semblance. In this study
the meaning was much deeper and yet restrictive. By
"aspect" was meant not only the actual appearance of some
communities in Brazil, but also their relations to the past
and their permanent characteristics. The study being cri
tical in the analytical sense, the term "aspects" was used
to limit the observations to certain phases of the problem.
Planning: One of the most difficult terms to define
was "planning." Since this word can be simultaneously
employed as a field of techniques, an attitude, an area of
study in Public Administration, an engineering technique,
and an administrative procedure, and in any of these
9
aspects there were dozens of acceptable definitions, it was
rather difficult to establish the boundaries of the meaning
in the particular case of this study. What seems a good,
textbook definition of Planning is furnished by the English
planner, James W. R. Adams, who states that it is "The art
of shaping and guiding the physical arrangements and struc
ture of towns and rural communities in harmony with social
and economic needs.
The definition preferred by the author was: "Planning
is to devise a course of action." If this definition
appears too broad at first impression, it was nevertheless
the most suitable for the kind of presentation adapted. The
research not being limited to engineering aspects and, on
the contrary, leaning towards a social and historic study,
it was necessary to employ "planning" with a broad sense of
having an idea of projection into the future.
Community: This is a group of families living in a
given area. The union of families is made, not by similar
characteristics, but by common necessities. The type of
work, racial or religious background, the economic level,
the social activities are not important in a planning sense
as factors in the formation of a community. If these
^ James W. R. Adams, Modern Town and Country Planning
(London: J. & A. Churchill, Ltd., I952T, p. 1.
10
factors do influence the ultimate result, their presence in
the actual formation of the special group can he omitted.
A community can and often does include different kinds of
human beings. The main characteristic of a community is
the common necessities of the inhabitants of a certain
area. Water, light, air, protection, are important factors
of the establishment of a community. In our day, even if
they are forgotten, the natural conditions are important
factors of survival. The limits of a community are physical
boundaries. In many cases these boundaries are not appar
ent. The tremendous growth of the modern city does not
permit a complete perspective. But a detailed study of any
community reveals the presence of natural limitations that
one day or another will stop the growth of the population
in the area. And these factors are still the same— water,
space, food.
The following definitions were according to the
legal concepts of the terms employed.
Region: This was a geographic division of Brazil.
For geographic studies the country was divided into five
regions, each with certain specific characteristics. These
regions were: the Northeastern, the Southeastern, the
Central, the Southern, and the Amazon. In the chapter
dedicated to the local aspects of geography, the
11
characteristics of these regions are described extensively.
State: This is the second level of government in
Brazil. It has the same characteristics as the state in
America but, due to the different Brazilian background for
establishing a Federal system of government, the states have
less power.
Munieipio: The third and lowest level of government
in Brazil. It includes cities, towns, and counties, in the
American sense of administrative division. This political
division is also extensively described in a special chap
ter. The "munieipio" was the basic unit of the Brazilian
administrative communities, but sometimes very large in
geographic terms, forcing the author to employ the term
"community" to express a smaller group of families with
specific characteristics.
Distrito: The Municipality comprises the rural areas
as well as the cities in its boundaries; that is, both con
stitute a single administrative unit. For administrative
purposes it may be subdivided into "distritos" which are no
more than a ramification of the municipal government. It
is in this sense that the author has employed the terra in
this work.
The terms that present doubt and which are not
listed in this section are explained in footnotes.
12
Organization of the remainder of the thesis. The
study was divided into five parts, which were: Introduction,
the Place, the Man, the Community, and Conclusions and
Recommendations. The organization of the material is indi
cated briefly below.
Part I: Introduction--This part Includes the state
ment of the problem, the need for its study, definitions of
key terms used, limitations of the study, an outline of the
organization of the study, and a study of the available
literature in the field.
Part II: The Place— In this part the author describes
the country physically and the local conditions with the
purpose of creating a frame of reference from which to
attack the specific local problem. Since geography is a
main factor in the formation of Brazilian communities, all
of the third chapter is dedicated to this study.
Part III: The Man— Since a brief historic study is
needed to complete the frame of reference, the fourth chap
ter is dedicated to a study of Brazil through a social
formation point of view. The history of the country, the
social formation, the culture, and the political and
administrative institutions are analyzed to give the neces
sary information as a background to the reader.
Part IV: The Community— In the fourth part, which
includes chapters five, six, and seven, the author studies
13
the local conditions of the communities and the ways. In
his opinion, of improving them. This is the most important
part of the work since its main purpose is to convey the
author’s ideas as to the subject and relate the American and
Brazilian communities in a comparative study. The following
chapters are included: the Munieipio, the Brazilian Commu
nity Problems, and Planning Techniques, and the American
Community. The first chapter states local conditions and
Brazilian administrative conditions at the time of the
study. The last ones show the needs and the American solu
tions to such problems. Consideration is given to what
conditions might develop were that to continue to be the
dominating attitude of thé area of the study. But sugges
tions are presented in the cases where the applicability of
American techniques is possible.
Part V: Conclusions and Recommendations— In light of
information developed by the presént study, conclusions are
drawn as to what should be done to plan the Brazilian com
munity .
Recommendations are then made as to what should be
done by the authorities, the planners, and the government in
general to effect the best plan for all concerned.
Review of sources and methods. Gathering the mater
ial for this thesis was a problem in itself. The material
14
exists in many forms and covers many fields. The sources
were located in two countries and included at least four
major areas: literature pertinent to philosophies of plan
ning, literature pertinent to techniques of planning,
literature pertinent to the legal aspects of planning and,
finally, literature pertinent to planning in other fields.
In this last area the authors included the history, geog
raphy, social and economic studies that were realized to
give the necessary background to the study.
A thorough study was made of all sources listed
above. To compile the information a systematic search was
made of the documents, books, magazines, laws, papers, and
reports according to subject. A special trip was made to
work at the library of the Department of City and Regional
Planning at the University of California. But the following
chapters are mostly the result of the knowledge acquired
during the Public Administration courses. This thesis
could not have been written without the assistance of its
staff.
CHAPTER II
THE PLACE; GEOGRAPHICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF BRAZIL
Continental position. The main purpose of this
brief chapter on the history of Brazil is to give a back
ground for the research and comparative studies that are
the aim of this work.
Covering approximately 3>288,045 square miles and
bordering every other country in South America except Chile
and Ecuador, Brazil is the largest republic in Latin
America and the fourth largest in the world, exceeded only
by Russia, China, and Canada. A little more than one-half
of all inhabitants of South America live within the boun
daries of Brazil.
The Republic has over l4,300 miles of boundaries; it
is bordered on the north by the Guianas, Venezuela, and
Columbia; on the west by Peru and Bolivia; on the southwest
and south by Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay; and on the
east and northeast by the Atlantic Ocean, which washes its
regular coastline for more than 56OO miles.
Physical aspect. Only three per cent of the total
area of the country exceeds 3000 feet in altitude, and the
highest mountains are well under 10,000 feet. Plateaus,
l6
comprising approximately 57 per cent of the area of Brazil,
extend over the immense interiors of the country, varying
between 650 and 3OOO feet in altitude. The principal
plains account for the remaining 40 per cent of Brazil and
are found in the upper Amazon Valley, in the flood plain of
the Parana River, and along the coast. Brazil has the most
extensive and well developed river system in the world.
The total navigability of inland waterways that flow into
the Atlantic has been estimated at 26,713 miles. Besides
their value for transportation, these rivers have great
hydro-electric potentialities, a fact which is especially
important in view of Brazil’s lack of coal for power and
fuel.
Climate. Almost all, 93 per cent, of Brazil is
within the torrid zone. The bulk of the territory lies
between the Equator, which touches the northern mouth of
the Amazon, and the Tropic of Capricorn, which passes
through the city of Sao Paulo. It is often assumed, there
fore, that the climate is predominantly tropical. But
happily for Brazil, the effects of latitude are modified by
a number of other factors, such as altitude, prevailing
winds, rainfall, and distance from the sea. It is not to
be wondered at, says Aframio Peixoto, that "with so vast a
territory and such varying local conditions of altitude, a
17
proximity to or distance from the sea, soil bare or covered
by vegetation, Brazil has various climates, in fact almost
all climates of the earth.
In the tropical and sub-tropical sections of the
country the year is usually divided into a winter and a
summer, corresponding roughly to a dry and a wet season.
In the south central and southern states, however, the
seasonal temperature changes are more pronounced. Below-
freezing temperatures are seldom found except in the extreme
south and at high altitudes, and the country is free from
cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes, and similar disturbances.
Geographic regions. The twenty states. Federal
District, and five territories comprising the Republic of
Brazil may be conveniently divided into three broad geo
graphic areas: the torrid Amazon basin of the north; the
half-forest, half-desert expanse of uplands in the north
east; and the mountains and plateaus of the central and
southern area.
The Amazon region of northern Brazil is a sparsely
settled, low-lying, tropical valley forming the basin of
the great Amazon River. Rising in the Andes, the Amazon
sweeps eastward through dense undergrowth and thickly
^ Aframio Peixoto, well-known Brazilian writer and
sociologist.
18
matted equatorial forests to the Atlantic Ocean. Here at
its mouth is Marajo Island, 100 miles long from north to
south, and l80 miles wide from east to west, The immense
watercourse, traversing almost 4000 miles from source to
mouth, is the second largest river in the world, being
exceeded only by the Nile, while for sheer size it is unsur
passed. With a width of more than 170 miles at its mouth,
and one mile at Tabatinga, 2000 miles from the Atlantic,
the river pours itself into the sea in such terrific volume
that it turns the salt water of the Atlantic fresh for
about 200 miles. Navigable for ocean-going vessels for
more than 2300 miles, the greater part of the Amazon lies
in Brazil where it is fed from the north principally by the
Ica, Japura, and Negro Rivers, and from the south by the
Juria, Purus, Madeira, Tapajos and Xingu, each of these
tributaries a thousand or more miles in length. At least
in their lower reaches about half of the Amazon’s 200
tributaries are open to traffic. The area drained by the
Amazon and its tributaries includes the whole northern
region of the country and extends over half the length of
Brazil in the central and western sections.
Included in Amazonian Brazil are the states of
Amazonas, Para, Maranhao, the upper halves of Mato Grosso
and Goias, and the federal territories of Acre, Amapa, Rio
Branco, and Guapore. The major portion of this area with
19
the exception of the highland plains of the south and south
eastern Mato Grosso and Goias, is no more than a few feet
above sea level, and the climate is uniformly damp and hot.
Rainfall averages 79 inches per year while the average mean
temperature is 79°P. Because of the tropical climate and
rich, alluvial soil, the basin is covered with luxuriant,
virgin forests, or selvas, abounding in innumerable
varieties of forest products. About one fourth, or 50,000,
of all the world’s known vegetable species are found in
Brazil. Amazonian Brazil’s great wealth consists of rubber,
Brazil nuts, oilseeds, and timber.
The second geographical division is the Brazilian
northeast, including the large state of Bahia and the sev
eral small states of Piaui, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte,
Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, and Sergipe. Much of it con
sists of Caatinga, that is, scrub land of semi-desert
character. Irrigation is required in certain areas,
although a considerable portion is forested. Here the
altitude is seldom less than 1000 feet and occasionally
rises to over 3000. This part of the country is subject to
devastating droughts at irregular intervals, although rain
fall averages as high as 58 inches annually. The average
temperature is 78°?. The principal rivers of northeastern
Brazil are the Sao Francisco, the largest river lying
entirely within Brazil, and Parnaiba. The Sao Francisco
20
rises in the mountains of central Minas Gerais and flows
northward parallel to the coast for 1000 miles or so, and
then turns sharply eastward and descends the Paulo Afonso
Falls to the Atlantic. Although its source is broken by
rapids and this great falls, the stream has long been, and ■
still is, an important connecting link between northern and
southern Brazil. The Parnaiba River rises in the highlands
I
of the state of Goias and flows northward to the Atlantic
between the states of Maranhao and Piaui. It is also
broken by rapids but is navigable for some 460 miles in
sections. Cacao, cotton, sugarcane, tobacco and coffee are
successfully raised in irrigated or humid sections; oil-
producing nuts are collected in the forests; various fiber
plants are grown; carnauba wax is harvested from a variety
of palm particularly suited to drought conditions.
The third geographical division, the central and
southern uplands, is virtually the heart of present-day ;
Brazil. Here are found the most fertile and productive
lands, the celebrated coffee fazendas, the cotton, fruits,
and livestock that contribute so heavily to the country's
export trade, the principal mineral deposits and manufac-
I
turing centers, most of the highways and railways, and the .
bulk of the population.
The states of Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas
Gerais, Sao Paulo, Parana, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do J
21
Sul, the Federal District, and the lower halves of Mato
Grosso and Goias, which compose this region, account for
almost 60 per cent of the total population. The climate is
generally cool, dry, and salubrious. Rainfall averages 51
inches annually, and the average mean temperature is 68^F.
In the south, the Brazilian sections of the rivers consti
tuting the Rio de la Frata system are of great importance.
Of the Paraguay River, which rises near the center of Mato
Grosso, 880 miles are in Brazil. The Parana is a Brazilian
river for over a third of its 2800 miles. The Uruguay, the,
third great river of the La Plata system, rises in the Serra
do Mar mountains. Navigation in the Brazilian section is
greatly impeded by rapids.
Mountain system. Three ranges make up the mountain
system of Brazil: the coastal, the central and the Guiana.
The coastal. Serra do Mar, consists of a great escarpment
rising only a short distance inland from the Atlantic
Coast, It extends from Bahia southward to Rio Grande do
Sul. The highest peak in Brazil, 9482 feet, is part of
this system. It is located northeast of Rio de Janeiro,
The central system is made up of ranges or ridges of tabular
upland found in the states of Minas Gerais, Goias, and Mato
Grosso, and in the northeast. The Guiana range is located !
north of the Amazon on the borders of Venezuela and British
22
Guiana.
Economic development. In Brazilian economy, one
commodity has always outweighed all the others at any given
period and the prosperity of the country has temporarily
been based on this particular product. Great fortunes have
been built thereon until little by little, for some reason
or another, it has been replaced by a rival product and
fallen to a secondary position.
Thus the economic evolution under review may be
divided into four overlapping periods or cycles, each
depending on the output of a raw material, namely:
The brazilwood cycle, lasting for about fifty years
from the date of its discovery.
The sugarcane cycle, from the bringing of the first
shoots to Brazil about the year 1530 to the second half of
the next century.
The cycle of gold and mining that dominated the
whole of the third century.
The coffee cycle that has lasted from the middle of
the third century up to the present day.
The basic product of any cycle did not lose all sig
nificance in the course of the following period; it merely
ceased to be the fundamental source of the riches of the
nation.
23
Leather, tobaccoy rubber, and cacao have also given
Brazil a temporary position of preponderance on the world's
markets, in view of the large volume of exports, but they
never attained the importance of the four commodities pre
viously mentioned.
Of recent years, Brazil has deliberately departed
from the principle of concentrating on one sole activity and
embarked on a systematic program of freeing the economy from
dependency on an overdeveloped field by encouraging the
parallel output of other valuable commodities, to the end
that the country may become partially self-sufficient
through the diversification of industry and agriculture.
Ethnography. Brazil was discovered and settled by
the Portuguese, who gave the country its language, religion,
and basic racial type. The first explorers found a widely
scattered Indian population, estimated to be about 800,000,
who were relatively low in the scale of civilization. The
pure Indian of the coast was either killed off or absorbed
into the population; As a result the Amazon Valley is the
last stand of the full-blooded Indians, who now number only
a few thousand and who are for the most part peaceful.
Introduction of slaves into Brazil to supplement the
meager resources of Indian labor began late in the l6th |
century and continued until after I850, although the slave
24
trade was outlawed in 1831. The slaves brought into Brazil
were generally Sudanese and of a very high type. On the
eve of independence (l822) it was estimated that about half
the population of around 3.8 million was black.
More than four centuries of amalgamation and assimi
lation of Brazil’s peoples have produced a distinct culture
and nationality. All the basic stocks into which the human
I
race may be divided— Indian, Caucasian, Negro, and
Asiatic— have entered into the composition of Brazil's
population. The range of today's complexion tones naturally
is varied. In the field of biology, as Roy Nash observes,
"the Brazilian drama unrolls a theme of great importance
for the human race." All the three races have in common
the privilege of living in a land that practices no segre
gation and creates no outcasts. The most conspicuous or
important areas, ethnically speaking, are as follows; the
Amazon River, largely Indian; the central coast from !
Pernambuco to Bahia, more than 60 per cent Negroid; the
northeastern sertao. or high plateau, inhabited by a white-
Indian mixture; the southern states, about 75 per cent !
white.
The rapid increase of white population in the south .
has been due to the stream of European immigration which
has poured into that section. The introduction of immi
grants from Europe dates from 1818, when a colony of Swiss J
25
settled at Nova Grlburgo, near Rio de Janeiro. Between
1821 and 1945, approximately 4.8 million immigrants entered
the country, among the most numerous being Italians,
Portuguese, Spaniards, Japanese, Arabs, and Germans, with
the Japanese showing heavy gains in the years immediately
before World War II.
Immigration and employment restrictions were ori
ginally enacted at the end of 1930 to relieve unemployment
during the depression. The immigration law now in force
limits immigration by an annual quota of two per cent of
the number admitted from a given country between the years.
1884-1933. Brazil is in great need of immigrants, owing to
her vast lands of unexploited but extremely fertile land.
But the unequal distribution of her rural population which
is always ready to leave the interior to the coast and to
the great cities and capitals is a factor highly unfavorable
to the rapid development of new expanses of cultivated
land. The Brazilian government now applies its system of
quotas only to those who make application to enter Brazil;
in addition the government is seeking colonists to open up ;
new agricultural areas. Colonists are being recruited in
Germany, Austria, Italy, and Portugal. By the end of 1949,
I
Brazil had granted entry to at least 30,000 displaced per- i
sons from Europe who were either settled on private farms
26
or given plots of land by the government. But no foreign
group or colony may have more than 25 per cent of any one
nationality or less than 30 per cent Brazilians.
As to the economic and social evolution, the next
chapter gives a brief summary of the Brazilian history.
CHAPTER III
THE MAN; HISTORIC AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND OP THE PROBLEM
To understand the actual conditions of the Brazilian
social organization, a brief but complete knowledge of the
country's history is necessary. The study of Public Admin
istration, even based on pragmatic lines, cannot be sepa
rated from the social and political formation of the people
that are related to that analysis.
The city as a purely physical fact has been subject
to numerous investigations. But what is the city as
a social institution? The earlier answers to these
questions, in Aristotle, Plato and the Utopian
writers from Sir Thomas More to Robert Owen have been
on the whole more satisfactory than those of the more
systematic sociologists: most contemporary treatises
on "urban sociology" in America throw no important
light upon the problem.
Brazil was discovered approximately four hundred and
fifty years ago, but during this relatively short period of
time many changes occurred under various regimes. Its his
tory explains many of the actual trends.
The discovery. Portugal being a small country in
the south of Europe and bounded to the north and east by
Spain, and being bathed to the south and west by the
^ Lewis Munford, The Culture of the Cities (New York:
Harcourt, Brace & Co., 193®), P 479.
28
Atlantic Ocean, it is only natural that the inhabitants had
an urge to put out from land. This great interest in sea
faring developed considerable ability in navigation.
When Columbus discovered America, the Portuguese had
already been traveling far over the Atlantic for decades.
Vasco da Gama achieved worldwide renown when he found a sea
route to India. A few years later Pedro Alvarez Cabrol, in
1500, in a trip to the eastern lands, sheered away from the
coast of Africa and landed in the new land that was later
named Brazil. Taking into shore, he sought a sheltered
harbor for his ships and when a small bay opened invitingly,
the sailors cast anchor in calm water near a small island.
After landing on the island, the chaplain of the fleet
intoned the first Mass to be celebrated on Brazilian soil.
The inhabitants of Brazil. In our day, the Indians
constitute less than one per cent of the population of
Brazil. Their role in the history of the country was small,
but as in the case of the Missions in the southern portion
of the continent, were indirectly the cause of many impor
tant events.
The first Indians that the Portuguese met were
gentle and friendly. They helped the first colonizers in
their work and participated in their religious ceremonies.
However, as the years went by, the conquerors found that
29
not all the natives of Brazil were as mild as these, nor
did they all speak the same language, but were divided into
various nations, subdivided into tribes, and governed by a
chief. Some of these tribes were fierce and warlike, con
stantly fighting with one another, their principal weapon
being the bow and arrow, which they handled with extra
ordinary skill. Those who lived near the sea or the rivers
were expert boatmen, paddling their swift dugouts, which
were nothing more than hollowed tree trunks.
The man went hunting and fishing while the women
looked after the cooking, brought up their children and
tended the crops, for some tribes had already embarked upon
agriculture, growing Indian corn and manioc or cassava, a
root which constituted their staple foodstuff. The more
advanced tribes manufactured earthenware pots and bowls for
various purposes.
In short, seeing that they could not induce the
natives to labor on the plantations, the colonists began to
send to Africa for levies of slaves to be employed in
agriculture, building, and other heavy work.
Colonization. Only thirty years after the discovery
of Brazil, the first attempt at colonization was made. An
expedition was organized under the leadership of Martin
Afonso de Sousa, a nobleman of ancient lineage. Among
30
other directions received from the King, his principal
orders were to dislodge all the Frenchmen and any other
foreigners from the coast of Brazil and to found small vil
lages or settlements.
When Martin Afonso arrived, he founded the settlement
that was destined to become the thriving seaport of Santos,
now the world's largest coffee export center. At the
beginning, wheats grapes, and sugarcane were planted for
local use. Martin Afonso carried out his instructions to
the letter but he soon realized that the new colony was an
immense territory and that it was impossible to leave its
administration in the hands of one man.
As a solution to this administrative problem the King
of Portugal decided to split Brazil into fifteen parts, each
with its own governmental jurisdiction.
The hereditary captaincies. Four years after the
arrival of Martin Afonso, the Portuguese government divided
the Brazilian coastline into fifteen lengths, each measur
ing fifty Portuguese leagues and carried the dividing lines
inland parallel to the equator as far as the longitudinal
2
line established by the Treaty of Tordesillas.
2
In the years that followed the discovery of
America, many were the disputes between Spain and Portugal.
To settle this uncertainty once and for all, the two
nations entered into agreements which resulted in the Treaty
31
The fiefs were granted by the King to the Captains
with the condition that they could not be divided up or
ceded to anyone else. The captaincies were hereditary,
i.e., on the death of the grantee the estate passed to his
eldest son, or in default, to another member of his family.
In every respect the captain or donatario was a true king
within the limits of his domain, with full powers to pass
judgment, conduct trade, and govern as he pleased.
Of the fifteen captaincies, only two prospered; to
the south, Sao Vicente, situated approximately in the
region of the modern state of Sao Paulo; to the north,
Pernambuco, where the growing of sugarcane was started with
great success. The rest of Brazil continued to be fought
over by the various Indian tribes. This led the King of
Portugal to intensify and strengthen his control through
the intermediary of a governor general appointed to be his
representative and the supreme authority.
The Governors General. The first governor general
was Tome de Sousa. Following the orders of his King, he
proceeded to found in Bahia the first capital of the colony.
As time went on, the captaincies all reverted to the crown
of Tordesillas, which established that Portugal would own
the lands situated to the east and Spain the lands to the
west of an imaginary meridian, henceforth known as the Line
of Tordesillas.
32
of Portugal, either by purchase or because the grantees
abandoned them.
Portugal and its colonies under Spanish rule. When
the King of Portugal died in I58O, the ruling house could
not present an heir to the throne and King Philip II of
Spain seized the realm. Spanish rule lasted for sixty
years and during this time the most important events were
struggles against the French Corsairs in the province of
Maranhao, the struggles against the Dutch in Bahia, the
Dutch rule in Pernambuco, probably the most important event
in the social formation of the North of Brazil, and the
conquest of the interior of the country.
These last two events were highlights in Brazil's
history, since the Dutch colonization for twenty-four years
of the northern part of Brazil brought not only a high
knowledge of arts and sciences, but a new administrative
approach. The Dutch colony was ruled by Prince Maurice of
Nassau, one of the best administrators of his time. The
other event, the colonization of the interior, gave Brazil
its actual boundaries. It was above all during the period
of Spanish rule that the Portuguese began to spread inland
from the seacoast and disregard the limits of the Treaty of
Tordesillas. Expeditions known as bandeiras were organized
and made their way into the forest, often remaining months
33
or years without communicating with their families. When
Portugal regained its independence and the Spaniards wanted
to revive the concept of the Tordesillas Line, it was too
late.
The yearning for independence. The sentiment of
nationality that was tending to unite the inhabitants of
Brazil was not slow to raise the standard of revolt against
the Portuguese authorities in various parts of the colony.
In Sao Paulo, the starting point of the most successful
"bandeiras," the population, trained in the hard school of
intrepid pioneers, were of a mind to struggle and rebel in
defense of the right to keep for themselves the mines that
they had discovered at the cost of such bitter sacrifices.
In Minais Gerais, a group of young men who had gone to study
in Europe returned with the idea of stirring up a revolution
to cast off the Portuguese yoke. "... when mining
declined at the end of the eighteenth century, the senti
ment of national unity and the idea of emancipation were
not only latent but alive.These movements were not suc
cessful, but at the same time in Europe the Napoleonic wars
were preparing a situation that would produce an ultimate
resuit--the independence of Brazil.
3 Fernando de Azevedo, Brazilian Culture (New York;
The Macmillan Co., 1950), 5^2 pp.
34
Exodus of the Portuguese Court to Brazil. Because
Portugal was friendly towards England, Napoleon decided to
invade the Iberian peninsula. D. Joao VI, King of Portugal,
knowing that any resistance would be useless, decided to
leave for Brazil, bringing with him not only the Court, but
the nation's treasury and the national library. Arriving
in Brazil he opened the ports, that up to that time had
their usage limited to Portuguese vessels alone, to all
friendly nations. He also founded the school of medicine
and surgery in Bahia, the Public Archives, the National
Library, an Academy of Fine Arts, a Botanical Garden, a Bank
of Brazil, a School of Medicine, a Royal Printing Office,
and many other official institutions. In the same year,
the first Brazilian newspaper began to circulate and Don
Joao signed the decree that freed all industries which
had hitherto been strictly regulated in order to reserve
the monopoly of manufacture to concerns established in
Portugal, It was, simultaneously, a tremendous progress
for the country in all aspects— cultural, social, and
economic.
The independence. When Napoleon was definitely
overthrown in Europe, the King of Portugal, after postponing
his trip many times, had to return to Europe. But he left
behind his son, Don Pedro, with specific instructions as to
35
the future of Brazil. Knowing that the country would soon
follow the example of other nations on the continent, Don
Pedro, following his father's instructions and the advice
of prominent men, declared the independence of Brazil,
The empire. For sixty-seven years Brazil was an
empire. All the characteristics of a monarchist government
were present, but the regime was highly democratic. The
actual tendency of the Brazilian administration towards
centralism has its roots in the Unitarian regime of the
Empire, that the Republic tried in vain to erase.
With the death of Don Joao VI, Don Pedro returned to
Portugal leaving a Regency till the majority of his son.
This Regency, however, did not meet all the administrative
requirements of the nation. It failed to pacify the
province of Rio Grande do Sul, where a revolution broke out
that lasted five years; furthermore, the system of appoint
ing the regents by election gave rise to tremendous strug
gles, Thus, everyone looked forward to the day when the
Prince Don Pedro would come of age.
Don Pedro's reign, which lasted for nearly fifty
years, was a period of great progress for Brazil. His con
tribution to the unity of the country and to general wel
fare, are still an example. Among the various achievements
of his reign, the following should be mentioned: the first
36
census of the population of the empire; railroad construc
tion and prolongation; shipyards and shipbuilding, which
raised Brazil to the fourth navy in the world at the time;
street car lines between the capital and its suburbs; com
pilation of the Imperial Commercial Code and studies paving
the way for a Civil Code; substitution of the out-of-date
system of weights and measures by the metric system; laying
of a submarine telegraphic cable between Brazil and Europe.
The emperor was also strongly in favor of the movement for
abolishing slavery, but this law was the motive for the
falling of the regime.
The republic. In I889 the Republic was proclaimed
and a Provisional Government appointed to rule until the
first presidential election. This was held up until the
new Constitution, inspired by United States basic law, could
be voted. The former provinces became states, each with a
constitution of its own. State authority was to be vested
in a governor appointed by election, with a state legis
lature and Judicial system.
The city of Rio de Janeiro became the Federal Dis
trict, administered by a prefect, or mayor, chosen and
appointed by the President of the Republic, who also
appointed the ministers of state to be his direct assis
tants.
37
Holding office for four years, presidents were regu
larly elected from 1891 to 1930.
During this period, many were the improvements. A
number of ports were built under the Republican regime,
the chief being those of Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and
Reaife. The network of railroads was considerably
enlarged. The University of Rio de Janeiro was created and
the Civil Code issued. Public health was promoted and
yellow fever completely eradicated.
Political and social modifications. The Republic
did not change the social organization of Brazil. With
time and freed labor, the big farmers, fazendeiros, who had
suffered a serious blow in the sudden loss of their slaves,
recovered their pre-eminence, retaining the national lead
ership they had held during the empire, not only in the
economic sphere, but in politics and society as well. Edu
cation, which their sons received at the highest level,
helped to widen the gap between this class and the bulk of
the population, who scarcely got as far as elementary
school. However, the country as a whole could not fail to
develop new ambitions with the growth of towns and the need
for skilled labor. During the first world war, Brazilian
industry appeared as a promising reality, arousing among
the new professionals an acute feeling of the incongruity
38
of the rather aristocratic regime of existence. This
social situation brought to the surface an urge of modifi
cations which took years to come to a head in political
events.
Not one important factor was in question, but
several. The economic difficulties caused by a heavy fall
in coffee prices aggravated the situation and the indepen
dent attitude of an otherwise esteemed President, adamant
upon imposing in 1930 a candidate for the coming presiden
tial term, precipitated the political crisis. The Presi
dent in power lost the three remaining weeks of his mandate
and the opposition candidate was made Chief of a Provisional
Government. A Constituent Assembly voted a modified Con
stitution which was again modified in 1946 when it returned,
in its general lines of framework, to the federative repub
lican system of government instituted by the Constitution
of 1891.
Brazil in the last twenty years. It is premature to
draw any conclusions about the reform movement which first
took shape in the twenties. There is still a long road to
travel before reaching the end of the possibilities con
tained in the essential changes already made. However,
without laying ourselves open to the charge of passing
judgment on a situation that is not yet definitive, we may
39
venture to refer to a few significant facts.
With regard to education, a considerable advance has
been made in the number of schools and classes. Technical
preparation is also being intensified, but the most
impressive feature in the present-day set-up seems to be
the improvement in the intermediate grades. While before
the period in view secondary education was considered to be
a little more than a channel for the privileged student who
might expect the advantage of a university degree, the per
centage now entering high school is very many times higher.
Technical institutes have been set up in various regions,
in particular professional schools and agronomical insti
tutes. The social importance of such an evolution and its
contribution to the formation of a community mind can
hardly be over-emphasized.
This progress is of a kind that can easily be ascer
tained from a study of statistical data, but another funda
mental innovation is equally apparent on a closer acquain
tanceship with Brazilians in general, namely the spirit of
research that pervades. It is to be found in literature,
sociology, and economics and involves the same obsession
in the intellectual and the common man. Such a realistic
attitude, far from producing a depressive effect, has
brought a new confidence in life and in the country.
CHAPTER IV
THE MÜNICIPIO: ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL ASPECTS
The evolution of the community in Brazil was very
slow. As stated in previous chapters, the prevailing form
of social life was usually centered around a plantation or
mining work. The consciousness of community life was
absent and the failures to give the country a decentralized
government contributed to postpone creation of small, inde
pendent communities. In our day the legal division of
Brazil has been limited to the "municipio." This term has
only a legal meaning, giving a definition to the smallest
administrative unit. Actually, some municipios are bigger
than many countries in Europe. The largest has l60,000
square miles, others include in its boundaries only a small
area, highly populated. Only after 1946, with the new
constitution, the municipal institutions had the place that
they deserve in the Brazilian administration. It was rec
ognized that community life had a typical local aspect that
should be included in the organization of the country. This
change towards a more powerful local government was nothing
new. On the contrary, it was only a revival of the Roman
legal institutions that provided a special place for the
"munieipio."
41
The colonial community. Colonial days and the
natural tendency of the Portuguese crown to centralize the
government of the colony in a single unit concurred to
modify the administrative organization. Also the tremen
dous size of the country and the rural nature of its
resources changed the possibilities of creating a community
life.
Nowhere along the coast, dotted with human groups,
or on the plateau on which there had already been
established the town of Piratiniga, did the growing
society meet conditions favorable to its organiza
tion. Scattered in little nuclei that were sparse
and at a great distance from one another, made up
originally of two races, the white and the red, in
the most diverse stages of culture, crowded between
the coast and the plateau, between the attack of
pirates and assaults of savages, it lost its old
social structure that had come from the mother
country without elaborating a structure proper to
itself, and it continued with its colonists, its
exiles and its Indians as a phenomenon that one
might call presocial, a 'state of society in sus
pense, ' amorphous and fluctuating, seeking new
forms.1
p
Many authors, as Barboza-Lima Sobrinho, doubt the existence
of a real municipal life. Even the Municipal Councils were
more an essay of representative organization within the
original government than local governing bodies.
^ Fernando de Azevedo, Brazilian Culture (New York:
The Macmillan Co., 1950)i 562 pp.
p
Barboza Lima Sobrinho, lawyer and author of many
studies in municipalism.
42
Community life was based on the rural property which
had its own administration. The owner of a plantation was
the superior chief of the community and very seldom were
cases carried above his jurisdiction. He ruled the parti
cipation of the people in community life.
Evolution. With the independence the legal situa
tion changed. A specific provision was included in the
Constitution of 1824 establishing that every city and
village should have a popularly elected council in charge
of their "economical and municipal government.But, in
reality, the situation remained practically the same and
the regulatory law of I828 greatly reduced the powers of
the councils. The extreme centralization of government
during the Empire, and the concentration of local power at
the provincial level, left to the municipios a very obscure
role to which the complete financial incapacity added
greatly.
With the event of the Republic, again a new change
was attempted in favor of the local government. The Consti
tution, inspired by United States basic law, provided that
the states should organize themselves in such a way as to
assure to the municipal government its autonomy in
^ Constitution of 1824, Titulo VII, cap. II.
43
everything pertinent to local matters.^ The States, how
ever, had the capacity of interpreting the Constitution,
and, as a result, the only modification was the first
appearance of a local chief executive in the figure of the
"prefeito" or mayor. The basic deficiencies of the local
administration remained, mainly the lack of a substantial
revenue to face expenses, poor administrative knowledge,
and lack of planning of municipal activities.
New trends. With social changes in the early thir
ties, the new Constitution of 1934 provided more specifi
cally the autonomy of the munieipio. The details were,
nevertheless, to be established by the states in their own
Constitutions. This situation was not changed until 1946
when the raunicipalist movement had, with the new Constitu
tion, its first victory. The campaign to give the local
community more power was actually the recognition that
Brazil had a rural and agrarian characteristic that could
not be ignored. The organization of overdeveloped cities
was a phenomena based on artificial conditions of which the
high centralization of government was not the least impor
tant. The difficulty of organizing the planning activities
for the communities far located, the necessity of developing
^ Constitution of 1891, Titulo III.
44
the country's resources, the high concentration of industry
in certain spots, the evasion of taxes, and the natural
interest of people in local government, were facts that led
to administrative modification. With this modification the
number of municipios increased and, at the time of this
study, numbered nearly two thousand.
Local autonomy. Yet the municipal administrative
division is far away from giving a local government to the
communities. The size of these units is so great that they
usually include not only many communities, but in certain
cases, various cities. To incorporate a municipio there
are no specific regulations. Each state has its own pro
cedures, the most widely used requisites being the exis
tence, within the boundaries of the new municipio, of a
minimum of population and revenue. Only in a few states is
5
a vote of the people concerned mandatory. With the excep
tion of Rio Grande do Sul, all the states had organic
municipal laws, establishing the conditions for the exis
tence of the municipio. These organic laws were only
limited by what was provided in the Federal Constitution,
Article 28. And since it was the State that organized the
^ Plavio Leme, "Condicoes Minimas para Criacao de
Municipio,” Revista Brasileira de Municipios, Vol. XI,
p. 758.
45
municipalities, it was up to the State, with the observa
tion of what the Constitution prescribed, to define the
sphere of municipal competences, specifying its respective
limits and therefore declaring what it meant by local public
service and peculiar interest.^
Many states included the district as an administra
tive subdivision of the municipio, which was a method of
bringing to a lower level the benefits of the administra
tion. Since the municipality comprised the rural area as
well as the urban communities within its boundaries— that
is, both constituted a single unit— the district division
was advisable; but district organization lacked any impor
tance to be actually considered a significant factor in
7
local government. The district administration has been no
more than a ramification of the municipal government. The
creation of the district was provided by municipal organic
law and only in one state, Pernambuco, has the district had
an elective government. The district, as the municipio,
was not an electoral unit and the State representatives
were elected at large.
Brochado da Rocha, Francisco, ’ ’Incorporacao,
Subdivisao e Desmembramento do Municipio.” Revista
Brasileira de Municipios, Vol. IX, p. 104.
^ Raphael Xavier, Revista Brasileira de Municipios,
Vol. VI, p. 200.
46
The whole administrative organization was far from
giving any autonomy to the communities.
Financial autonomy. The greatest modification
realized by the 1946 Constitution in the Brazilian municipal
system was the improvement in municipal finance. Allocating
the different kinds of taxes among the three levels of gov
ernment, a great and unusual emphasis was given to the local
government. Many restrictions, however, were provided,
especially as to the use of municipal funds. These funds
had mandatory employment, as, for instance, twenty per cent
of the total revenue had to be employed in education. The
Constitution also provided the intervention of the State in
municipal affairs in certain cases, and specifically, in
the budgetary execution. This control, with others,
limited by far the original conception of local indepen-
denc e.
Only five taxes were reserved exclusively to the
municipalities. They were: real estate or property tax; •
license tax; personal tax on the exercise of the profes
sions, crafts, and industry; entertainment taxes, and taxes
on acts pertaining to municipal economy or under municipal
jurisdiction. The municipalities were also allowed to levy
fees and special assessment taxes, and to collect the income
derived from the exercises of their functions or from the
47
o
utilization of their property and services.
The right to levy these taxes was not enough to
strengthen the financial position of the municipalities and
prepare them to the new active role as community centers.
The revenues were so uneven that a few municipios had the
greatest incomes and the others, mostly rural, could not
survive with their financial allotments. To supply these
differences the Federal and State governments must supple
ment the income of municipios by dedicating a percentage of
certain taxes to be distributed among them. Part of the
gasoline and fuel taxes, the income tax, and other Federal
and State taxes were shared by the municipios. Yet, even
with this supplementation, many financial problems were
aggravating the life of the municipalities. Some of them
have their sources in complex economic conditions such as
the unbalanced distribution of wealth which makes the tax
ing power of most municipalities useless. The fiscal
policies were usually inadequate, and far behind the modern
techniques. The lack of knowledge and, especially, plan
ning, made the municipal budgets meaningless, not to speak
of the fields of assessment, accounting, and other phases
of the financial process neglected completely.
§ Brazilian Federal Constitution 1946, Sections 29
and 30.
48
Municipal organization. The organization of the
Brazilian municipio was centered around the mayor, often
appointed, who was in charge of all the management functions.
He had the power of veto and of initiating laws. His limi
tations were the limitations of the organization of the
municipios which, as a rule, had not the police or traffic
controls, for instance. On the other hand, the functions
were numerous: public utilities, general administration,
fiscal administration, public health, public safety, and
social assistance; industrial developments were among the
range of his power. Besides the mayor, in most municipios,
the organization included: a municipal secretary with var
ious responsibilities, a treasurer, a storekeeper, fiscal
agents, with such varied duties as tax collecting, inspect
ing and assessing, municipal teachers, public works agents
and, finally, a few laborers for the maintenance of streets,
parks, and other public locals.
Skilled labor and technicians were reserved for the
larger municipios which-could afford such expenses. The
majority of the municipios depended on outside advice to
realize any technical job. In very few organizations,
usually the bigger cities, was the function of planning
included in the personnel and provided in the budget. The
coordination, forecasting, and general planning depended
49
mostly on the common sense of the administrators and mem
bers of the Council, chosen in general among unprepared
people.
Municipal planning. No special provision was made
in Brazilian law to establish a pattern for local community
planning. Except in the larger urban centers, planning was
the consequence of certain needs. The social formation and
the historic evolution of the country made difficult the
organization of communities, as such, for many years. The
idea of a neighborhood unit was still unknown to the gen
eral Brazilian municipal administrator. But, as Arthur B.
Gallion stated: "The neighborhood unit is not some socio
logical phenomenon; it embraces no particular theories of
social science. It is simply a physical environment.”^
The conscience of the existence of a community neighborhood
and its problems was develo^iing fast in Brazil. The need
for better planned communities arose and little by little
has been conquering the biggest difficulties. Despite the
fact that the municipality comprised both the urban and
rural areas, which has been pointed out as a serious disad
vantage to the development of rural economy, and the muni
cipal government tended to restrict its action to the urban
^ Arthur B. Gallion, The Urban Pattern (New York: D.
van Nostrand Co., Inc., 1 9 5 1 ) 27Ü.
50
communities, even in rural areas the idea of good planning
was taking root.
The Brazilian community was, however, far away from
ideal conditions, or even from solutions already in use in
the United States. For the most part, Brazilian communi
ties, large or small, have grown without any plan. While
in the United States 73 per cent of the cities over 25,000
population had regular official planning agencies, in Brazil
the law provided such organizations in very few communities.
Municipal planning was limited to the capital of the States,
the Federal District and a few exceptions that were the
result of extraordinary good administration. The Brazilian
municipio, coping with restrictive laws, lack of revenue
and unbalanced economy, should lean more to planning to
resolve its problems. The statement of these problems and
its connection with the field of planning are studied in the
next chapter.
CHAPTER V
BRAZILIAN COMMUNITY PROBLEMS
Besides the basic lack of a proper legal foundation,
the Brazilian community has been facing numerous problems.
Some of these problems were inherent to all communities,
but others were specific of the local conditions, the social
development of the country, the traditions inherited from
the Portuguese and, above all, the nature and topography of
the country. The need for a sound planning policy in all
levels of government, and especially on the community level,
is emphasized by these problems.
Usually planning is thought of as exclusively an
urban device, reserved to the major cities. Yet, it is the
local, small community, coping with lack of revenue and
immediate questions that need scientific forecasting in its
administration. Also the rural population should have the
benefits of planning in their administrative life. This
leads to a division of planning into three major levels:
national, state, and local. Local planning, the only one
of these fields that is studied in this report, can be
divided into two areas; urban or city planning, and rural
planning. Both fields are interrelated and have the same
52
objective: the welfare of the community.
Urban or city planning has been the field in which
the techniques are more advanced. What is city planning?
As Stuart A. MacCorkel states: "City planning is the sci
ence of designing communities so that they will be more
convenient and more attractive places in which to live. It
aims to control and guide the development of the area in
such a way as to make it serve its best purpose.”^ This
definition, emphasizing the community welfare aspect of
planning, does not exclude the esthetic part of the science,
so many times neglected. And if the author brings this
point to a highlight, it is because not only the cities
are the image of the people that live in them, but because
the esthetic problem is much more important than many plan
ners admit.
Rural planning has been less studied. A specific
definition should more or less follow the same thought as
urban planning. Rural planning is the science of designing
rural communities so that they will be more convenient and
more attractive. A general definition of planning can be
used as the one accepted by T. J. Kent: "Planning is a
^ Stuart A. MacCorkel, American Municipal Government
and Administration (Boston: D. C. Health and Co., 1948),
p. 515.
53
continuous advisory process of the local community adminis-
tration.” Yet, variations in the form of planning are so
numerous that a single definition, except in very general
terms can be applied. The planner has to bear in mind that
planning is a process of forecasting problems and offering
solutions ahead of time in the administrative life.
Planning in Brazil offers problems that can be
divided in seven major groups: problems due to the situation
of the community, which includes all geographic and topo
graphic aspects of planning; problems due to natural ele
ments, which are indirectly a consequence of the first
group; the need for air, water,light, and other natural
elements in the community; problems of the legal organiza
tion of the community, including the finance aspect; prob
lems of production either agrarian or industrial; problems
of health and sanitary aspects of the community; problems
of communication and transportation; and finally, esthetic
problems.
The first group of problems is probably the most
important. All the others depend, directly or indirectly,
on the location of the community, "Urban growth is, in
some respects, analogous to processes in nature. The soil
^ T. J. Kent, University of California, Department
of City and Regional Planning, Berkeley, California.
54
of fertile and prosperous citizenship is tilled, the seeds
of investment are planted, and the garden is cultivated
with urban management and maintenance, both public and
private. A general glance at a map of Brazil proves that
only the communities adequately located, developed through
the years. All the major cities are on the coastline with
the exception of Bello Horizonte, which was built in the
last fifty years. This city was entirely planned before
its construction, and is the best proof that scientific
planning can change the prevailing conditions. On the
other hand, the city of Manans, after reaching a peak of
wealth and propserity, due to the rubber boom, dropped to a
stagnant life on account of the lack of vision of its
administrators.
The topography of certain regions makes it impossible
to locate in those areas any communities, but in Brazil the
extension of the territory in relation to the population
permits to overlook such problems. The modern planner can
choose numerous locations for developing a community, and
the ultimate result depends only on his ability and know
ledge.
As to the natural elements, this phase of planning
3 Arthur B. Gallion, The Urban Pattern (New York: D. .
van Nostrand Co., Inc., 1951), p. 166.
55
has been entirely neglected, especially in the major cities.
There is an economy of the natural elements that cannot be
overlooked. Modern science has developed methods of
increasing the concentration of water, power, and other
natural elements in restricted urban areas, but their cost
and the element of time involved is generally too high for
the normal community. As to the volume of circulating air,
no satisfactory solution as yet has been devised. A well
planned community must have a balance between the available
natural elements and the population needs. And only a care
ful planning, based on the most precise statistics, can
prevent a deficit of these elements and a regression in the
progress of the community.
In the study of the "municipio,” the actual legal
conditions of the Brazilian community were extensively
studied. Resuming the most important aspects of these prob
lems, we should say that the lack of local independence,
the lack of revenue, the need for a continuous help by the
Federal Government and, above all, the lack of planning and
technical organization, are the most important aspects of
the administrative problems in the Brazilian community.
The problems of community health and sanitation are,
for the most part, solved by the participation of the Fed
eral government through the Ministry of Health. In this
56
field great progress has been realized and, to state a
single aspect, the national campaigns against certain
diseases, as malaria and yellow fever, have been completely
successful. On the other hand, there is much to do on the
local level. Only three per cent of the Brazilian commu
nities over 25,000 have a water supply and very few under
that number of inhabitants, especially in the backlands,
have water and sewage systems.
Most Brazilian communities lack a self-supporting
life. The high concentration of industry around the major
cities and the natural setup of the agrarian organization,
tended to centralize the wealth of the country in a few
centers. And only the further industrialization and diver
sity of crops can solve this problem.
Connected to this question is also the actual situa
tion of communications and transportation. Due to the
extent of Brazilian territory and its geography, communica
tion offers an everyday problem. The system of transporta
tion is far behind the needs of the nation and the only
improvement in many years was the establishment of a very
active airlines network. But most communities still must
be self-sufficient and many crops perish for lack of trans
portation. Road construction stops at the State level and
only street maintenance is the responsibility of the local
administration. To aggravate this problem the toll system
57
of -bridges or highways is illegal in most of the States.
The local planner has to cope with the situation without
having the power to interfere in the sources of the problem
except indirectly.
Finally, there is the esthetic problem.
Our creative designer . . . will be a visual
expert, an artist in the form of the cities, and
aware of the contributions which others must make if
we are to live in communities which achieve an inte
gration of art and life. He must know what tradition
means . . . otherwise there is no point of departure.
He must develop the quality of imagination which can
seize on insignificant-seeming things and make them
into magical touchstones of urbanism; but he must
not be arrogant or cocksure. . . .4
Many communities have their own appearance which is part of
their characteristics and should be respected. Many monu
ments, especially of the Barroco period, are part of the
history of the country and deserve the attention of the
planners. Their location is, unfortunately, according to
old rules which collide with the modern methods of planning.
Also the population is usually against any major change in
the aspect of their city and only a comprehensive public
relations plan can convince the majority of the need for
good urban design.
The study of any of these problems would be a task
in itself and the author does not pretend to present their
sources or their solutions, but only to realize that their
presence is a challenge that cannot be ignored. And since
58
most of the problems are not typically Brazilian, but
common to all civilized countries, the study of what has
been done in more advanced nations is the only road to
practical solution.
CHAPTER VI
PLANNING TECHNIQUES
Through the years a special science of Planning has
been developed. Even if the philosophy of Planning has been
the major interest of most authors that dedicate their work
to this field, the actual necessities of the populations
and the practical work itself were responsible for growth
of certain techniques that constitute the basic core for
the science of planning.
This scientific aspect of the subject cannot be
denied and has been recognized by the very early authors.
Thomas Adams, known as the father of Planning in the United
States, contributes a comprehensive statement as to this
scientific approach;
City and town planning is a science, an art, and
a movement of policy concerned with the shaping and
guiding of the physical growth and arrangement of
towns in harmony with their social and economic
needs. We pursue it as a science to obtain knowledge
of urban structure and services and the relations of
its constitutional parts and processes of circula
tion; as an art to determine the layout of the
ground; the arrangement of land uses and ways of com
munication and the design of the buildings on prin
ciples that will secure order, health, and efficiency
in development; and as a movement of policy to give
60
effect to our principles.^
This tendency to give Planning a scientific back
ground has been growing ever since and, with the adaptation
of scientific methods and procedures from other sciences,
it has reached a stage on which the study can have a tech
nical approach.
The study of Planning techniques can be divided into
many branches. The most practical division is in branches
pertinent to or related to other sciences. This division
separates the different branches as to the geographic,
historic, legal, artistic, political, and many other
aspects, and it was the system employed in this work.
Natural elements. In the study of planning one of
the first researches to be made is the study of natural
elements. This is a technique that has been employed suc
cessfully and is current in our day. No planner would ever
attempt to establish a layout without preparing a careful
survey of the local physical conditions. Since it is rec- '
ognized that the natural elements of a region are limited,
there is an economy of the use of these elements that con
stitutes a technical branch of Planning. And when this
universal fact is ignored, the living conditions are
^ Thomas Adams, Outline of Town and City Planning
(New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1935)7 P* 21.
61
affected. A balance between the physical conditions and
the social conditions is one of the primary goals of Plan
ning. As Munford states;
. . , .our typical urban environments no longer
offer the possibility of a significant or healthy
life. Something more genial to the human soul is
desired: contact with the soil, the discipline of
manual labor, more intimate companionship with one’s
fellows, the esthetic Joys of sunrise and sunset, of
passing cloud and rising moon; and in the search for
these fundamental qualities many people temporarily
forget that social intercourse and social coopera
tion are no less important.^
It is this coordination between the physical and
social studies that is paramount for planning. The actual
concentration of people in the close confines of the city
produced myriad points of collision. What one individual
wanted to do on a particular spot of ground automatically
became a matter of serious concern to the many for their
very supply of the most basic requirements of life— sun
light, fresh air, water, etc.— might be imperiled.
An overall supervision and coordination of those
activities impinging upon the physical environment of cities
thus became stark necessity,
A brief study of the social conditions in any country
reveals the results of lack of planning. For example, one
writer describes the chaos of English cities which followed
^ Lewis Munford. City Development (New York:
Harcourt, Brace and Co., 194577
62
the coming of the Industrial Revolution thusly:
The great cities of the Victorian age were plan
less, amorphous, and horrible. Their rotted medieval
cores were being surrounded by workingmen’s sections,
row upon row of dull, dismal little houses upon which
the soot fell remorselessly.
New slums, modern slums, were growing up every
where, faster than . . . anyone could cut through
the old ones. The old ones were redeemed in part by
the lasting vitality of their esthetic organization.
They had been places in which people had once taken
pride, which had been loved. The new ones had nothing.
One slum was like another, block after block and mile
after mile, unrelieved by a single accent unless it
was the none-too-welcome one of a smoke-belching
chimney. There was seemingly no end. . . .
As to the older parts of these sodden towns where
the very poorest lived, or even where these miserable
lived in the cities of the new world, the worst
medieval conditions never equalled them for wretched
ness. 3
This was the somber background which gave birth to,
and has nurtured, the science of planning. The influence
of traditions and history is still one of the most impor
tant aspects of planning, and its study should be the sub
ject of particular attention.
The study of history and tradition leads, naturally,
to the knowledge of the people’s needs. Each country, each
region, each community has its own particular needs which
are specific locally. One of the major difficulties is to
determine these needs but, on a final basis, it is the
^ Henry S. Churchill, The City is the People (New
York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 194*577 P* 21.
63
people themselves that determine the goals for its future.
This was clearly stated by James Adams:
The ideal we wish to attain by town and country
planning is that a more prosperous and wholesome life
for the people to the fullest extent that is prac
ticable. An ideal, to be practicable, must be con
sistent with social demands. All physical improve
ment of towns finally rests on the foundation of
public intelligence. Town and country planning will
always be limited in its ideal by what the public
will agree to because, fundamentally, cities are
planned by citizens. Part of the object of town
and country planning, therefore, must be to add to
public knowledge, and to guide public opinion on
the right direction, with regard to the principles
of well planned development.4
But it is the duty of the planner not only to
respect public opinion but to guide the "style" of planning.
Each city has its own form which can only be changed to a
certain extent. And since the modern philosophies of plan
ning offer so many solutions it is up to the planner to
choose the best and most suitable. What kind of city shall
we have? A highly centralized metropolis or a polynucleated
one? The Broadacre of Prank Lloyd Wright, or the Sky
scraper City of Le Corbusier? The satellite Garden City of
Howard and Unwin, or the community built around a single
industrial plant as envisaged by Peter Drucker? The radial
city associated with 1’Enfant and Haussraann, or the linear
city of Soria y Mata? Combinations of these, or none of
4
James W. R. Adams, Modern Town and Country Plan
ning (London: J. & A. Churchill, Ltd., 1952), p. 14.
64
these?
These are questions that hold an answer and as we
seek to formulate an answer, Munford’s incisive counsel
intrudes itself: we cannot solve problems of form or style,
which is essentially a subsidiary or derivative issue,
until we have settled such primary ones as "What sort of
personality do we seek to foster and nurture? What kind of
common life? What is the order of preference in our life
needs?"
Here what we could call a "sensitivity of surround
ings" is called for:
The complex of our modern city, which is such a per
fect mirror of modern society, reveals so little to compen
sate for the loss of a community life that it has become
part of the designer’s task to offer new suggestions which
will make that life fuller, richer and replete with amuse
ment and innocent pleasures. If we can develop a sensi
tivity of surroundings which goes beyond form and structure
to include a talent for the employment of color, of water
and light, of pageantry, and of other elements which, with
the spontaneous inventions of crowds, help to create a more
congenial urban atmosphere, he will be perhaps astonished
but certainly gratified by generous public response.^
^ Tunnard, o£. cit., p. 385.
65
During all these preparations the planner should not forget
the natural trends of the locality, because they are the
actual guides of the process.
It is obviously not the function of city planning
to dictate how the residents of the city shall lead
their lives. Even though the city planner may dis
approve of the things that they value, or may place
a high value on goals or activities in which the
city residents are disinterested, it is not his
function to supplant their values with his.o
It is not only the knowledge of the geographical con
ditions, social background and normal trends that make a
good planner. Other techniques are needed. And of these,
the most important is a technical approach to layout. Plan
ning has a specific dynamic characteristic which is always
present and the study of the general layout of the city
must be constantly revised. Only a good knowledge of the
characteristics of towns and a comparative study can bring
good results.
The town planner must have . . . a background of
general knowledge of the characteristics of towns in
general, of what may be called their anatomy and
their biological developments. Towns and villages,
being growing organisms, cannot be planned like
buildings, as complete and finished works of art.
They have to be designed with due regard to their
dynamic character. As a problem in design a town
is more like the landscape architects plan of a park
than the architect’s plan of a building. The former
lays down the general lines of development and
^ Local Planning Administration (Chicago: The
International City Managers Association, 1948), p. 11.
66
provides for the control and direction of growing
organisms. The latter deals with quantities that
will remain fixed and achieve final shape as a
result of carrying out his design.T
Once these preliminary principles are studied, the
planner must have the tools to carry on his work. To sup
port any planning task, special laws are needed. They are,
at the same time, the structure and the limitations of
planning. These laws that can be grouped in the Master
Plan, the Zoning Code and the Building Code, are as good
and as effective as the tendencies that were used to pre
pare them. A total coordination between the planners and
the legislators is necessary to achieve efficiency.
Whatever we may secure by widening the scope of
laws, or by giving them the force of compulsion, will
not alone result in effective planning; that can only
be achieved from an intelligent use of the laws;
based first on recognition of the harmony that
exists between public and private interests in con
nection with the development of land for all pur
poses, and secondly, an appreciation of the fact
that the driving force in their application must
grow upwards from public opinion and not downwards
from dictation of government boards. Education of
town planners, of public authorities, and the gen
eral public, on principles of town planning, is
what is needed to pave the way for the realization
of its benefits in solving the problems created by
hazard and wasteful urban growth.
. . . the extent to which town planning will
advance will depend in the final analysis, not on
powers given by legislatures, but on how the work
of planning is carried out in practice. Its record
^ Adams, cit., p. 212.
67
of achievement will be commensurate in value, not with
the extent to which it is done, but with the manner in
which it is done."
The legal aspect of planning has always been a field
of controversy. To many authors it is not only the prin
cipal aspect of planning but the only reason for its exis
tence. Edward M. Basset, a pioneer in the field of zoning
law, believes that "City planning subjects are streets,
parks, public reservations, sites for public buildings,
harbor lines, locations for transportation facilities, and
zoning regulations."^ No law can be enforced without pub
lic support. It is part of the planner’s task to create a
goodwill atmosphere and the understanding of his work by
means of a comprehensive public relations plan. In our day
the devices of mass communication, the public relations
techniques and the widespread basic knowledge of community
life make this task much easier. This duty of enlightening
the public is an important part of the democratic process.
As Christopher Tunnard said:
This enables a democratic society to fix respon
sibilities clearly, unhindered by the mysteries of
technical Jargon or drafting technique. It is obvious
that the client will have to be better informed than
he sometimes is now, in order to arrive at a proper
o
Adams, o£. cit.^ p. 212.
^ Harold MacLean Lewis, Planning the Modern City
l2_yols_._,„New_york:_John_Wiley__ac._Sons,_Inc...,7Î9Î9T,--I>—7 - « -
68
decision; but decision-making, right or wrong, remains
his task.10
This limitation of his work, due to democratic life,
must always be in the planner’s mind. The freedom of choice
is, in last analysis, a privilege of the people. In truth,
there are those who would hail planning as actually creating
freedom for the individual. The City Managers Association
recommends:
The function of city planning then is not to
destroy the freedom of the individual, but to imple
ment and broaden his defective liberty by regulating
and limiting activities of individuals that would
encroach on the liberties of others and by providing,
through community effort, opportunities for the
individual that he would be incapable of providing
for himself.11
,Our traditional thinking about democracy might also
be susceptible to some change in emphasis. The common
thinking that democracy is rule by the people must be sub
stituted by a more realistic approach. Today, with govern
mental operation becoming increasingly specialized and com
plex, the average citizen can hardly be expected to parti
cipate actively in daily decision-making. Hence, even under
the best democratic conditions, decision-making is sur
rendered to the specialized technician.
Tunnard, cit., p. 363*
Local Planning Administration, p. 11.
69
Democratic planning, in our day, is already a part
of planning techniques. And its integration is one of the
main reasons for the success of planning in the United
States. The study of planning in North America is the sub
ject of the following chapter.
CHAPTER VII
THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY: AN EXAMPLE
Historic background. The United States today is
probably the most advanced nation in regard to city plan
ning. This is the result not only of widespread modern
techniques, but also of a traditional consciousness of the
need of a plan to guide in the physical development of the
communities. As early as 1682, William Penn established the
first urban plan in the country for the city that would be
Philadelphia. It consisted of two principal thoroughfares
intersecting at right angles with an open space at the
point of intersection and a considerable number of less
important right angle streets placed at regular intervals.^
This scheme of layout, well known in Europe and generally
copied by American cities, has become known as the gridiron
plan.
Washington, another planned city, adopted this same
layout, but L'Enfant in his layout superimposed twenty-one
diagonal avenues to facilitate traffic and permit several
panoramic views.
^ Austin P. MacDonald, City Government and Adminis
tration (New York: Thomas Y. CrowelTj 1951), 5th ed.,p.4'56.
71
Another city that followed the same pattern was New
York. As early as I807 the early Dutch colonists had built
their houses according to a gridiron layout. This plan was
officially adopted in I8II as the result of the recommenda
tions of a commission especially appointed to plan the city.
This plan still prevails. Many other examples of planned or
semi-planned cities can be found in the United States.
Some, like Salt Lake City, are still models of good layout.
At any rate, the gridiron plan became practically universal.
Actual trends. But even in the United States, the
completely planned city is an exception. Planning has been
in part concerned more with the correction of past mistakes,
in part with the anticipation of future needs.
Around us, in the city, each epoch in America has
been concentrated and crystallized. In building our
cities we deflowered a wilderness. Today more than
one-half the population of the United States lives
in an environment which the jerry-builder, the real
estate operator, the paving contractor and the indus
trialist have largely created. Have we begotten a
civilization? That is a question which a survey of
the American city will help us to answer.1
In our day, the scope of planning is as broad as the
field of municipal activities. Its purpose is to bring
about an intelligent development of every phase of municipal
^ Lewis Munford. City Development: Studies in Disin-
tegration and Renewal (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.,
1945), pT 5.
72
life. It is concerned not only with a general layout, but
with street layout, the location of public buildings to
insure maximum usefulness, and the regulation of private
property in the interest of general welfare. It includes
traffic, transportation facilities, playgrounds, parking
problems, water supply, sanitation. And this complete con
cept of planning is probably the greatest contribution of
American planners to the field.
There are various reasons for such progress in plan
ning in the United States. Through the American evolution
a continuous trend is the need for adaptation. According
to Munford: "The chief boast of the American city was its
prospective size."^ The impact of a new land, a different
nature and, above all the survival of community life led
the colonists to seek solutions for the new problems
created by a new life. As Robert Maynard Hutchins states:
Suffering one’s problems is a form of human adap
tation. . . , Solving one’s problems is an adaptive
process also. We are living in a brighter, better
age— an age when most if not all, of our problems
have fairly obvious solutions. We have entered the
era of adaptation by problem solving; and have
largely abandoned the ancient age of adaptation
through problem-suffering.3
^ Ibid.. p. 7.
^ Robert Maynard Hutchins, "Great Conversation,"
Time, September 1953.
73
This eagerness to meet the challenge of everyday problems,
the need to protect the collective interest in a democratic
organization, and the example of private enterprise in an
industrial civilization are the causes that gave this
country its prominence in the field of planning.
Planning organization. Planning was not always part
of the administrative organization. Until the beginning of
the present century, city planning was almost entirely a
matter of private initiative. Groups of public-spirited
citizens organized and financed commissions to study the
problem of municipal growth and prepare plans for council-
manic approval. Little by little, planning commissions
were established. At the beginning they had only a spe
cific task, generally to frame a satisfactory city plan for
the consideration of the council. Having prepared such a
plan, it immediately passed out of existence. As a result
there was not an agency specifically charged with the duty
of enforcement. Yet, the good result of the work of these
commissions made it apparent that a permanent body to super
vise the city plan was needed.
The first city to adopt a permanent city planning
commission was Hartford in 1907. It was composed of eight
members serving without pay and utilizing the staff of the
municipal engineering department. Other cities soon fell
74
into line. In our day, only Camden, New Jersey, of the
2i
large cities has no planning commission; and such com
missions are found in more than four fifths of the cities
whose populations exceed fifty thousand. The organization
of these commissions varies in size and in power. Five is
the most common number of members, but the range is between
three members to forty. Usually they are composed of pri
vate citizens appointed by the mayors, but occasionally
appointment is vested in the council, the manager, or the
commission. In a few instances the entire membership is
ex-officio. As to the time of serving, the five year term
is most common.
The technical help is not always permanent. It is
customary to employ a city planning expert to serve with
the commission either as a full-time executive or a part-
time consultant, but some cities place the entire burden on
the lay commissioners with such help as can be secured from
the municipal engineering department. The powers have also
a great variation. Sometimes the commission is purely
advisory, framing a plan that may be rejected by the city
council. On the other hand, it has sometimes a complete
authority over public improvements, subject only to the
financial control of the council. More commonly, however.
^ Population 25,000.
75
it occupies a position somewhere between these two extremes
All matters relating to the city plan must be referred to
the planning commission before final action is taken. Most
of the power of the planning commissions, however, depends
upon good relations with the city council and the under
standing of the public. Without public support, usually
secured only by an extensive public relations campaign, the
task of the planning commission is useless. Any kind of
legal enforcement provision is meaningless when the popula
tion is not willing to contribute to improve the city.
Future of planning in America. In the United States,
planning has reached a high peak. Not only the establish
ment of planning commissions is a sign of progress, but the
public support and understanding is widespread.
The most noteworthy thing about city planning today
is that at long last it is becoming popular, because
it is only on a basis of popular understanding and
participation that it can be a vital force in shaping
the modern urban world.5
Yet there is still much to be done. Planning is not only
an activity restricted to the local administrations but
should be carried by the Federal government.
Whatever the federal government has done or pro
poses to do about housing, it is a dangerous fact
Paul H. Douglas, "Democracy can’t Live in These
Houses," The People, Politics, and the Politician (New
York;_Henry_Holt__and_.Co.._,_195l)., -P..Z960._______________ _
76
that millions of Americans are shabbily sheltered and
living in filthy, malignant slum areas that are grow
ing both in size and in their threat to the physical
and political health of our country.o
This duty of supplementing the local government with help
in coping with the housing problem has been perfectly under
stood by Congressmen and opened a new field for community
planning. The rapid and unexpected growth of density of
population in certain areas required more houses, more
capital and more technical planning than the usual city
could provide.
Over the stretch of recent years the slums have
been getting worse and worse. The rush of warworkers
to the cities while the war was on added immensely
to the housing problem. There has been no corres
ponding flow back to the rural localities since the
war ended, and none is likely. We are.an industrial,
and increasingly a city people.7
These problems are a challenge to the city planners.
Whatever solution is adopted, the United States will always
be an example for other countries. Its possibilities in
terms of technical knowledge, capital and capacity of
recuperation from previous errors gives this country a
leadership position in the field of planning as in other
fields. There are still many theories and different
6
Tracy B. Augur, Citizen Participation in City
Planning (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., Î9467T P* 101.
^ Douglas, op. cit., p. 962.
77
approaches to be tested in organizing the community life.
But the success so far of the methods employed in the
American community is sufficient to establish a basic tech
nical knowledge that can and should be followed.
CHAPTER VIII
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
At this point the conclusions resulting from this
study should be quite obvious. They have been stated in
part as the presentation has developed and will only be
briefly summarized here. By the simple process of elimina
tion the undesirable course of action will first be dis
counted, leaving the logical solutions. Brazil has a pecu
liar situation and a unique social development in this con
tinent. Its actual conditions and characteristics are
specific to the country and only Brazilian solutions can
solve Brazilian problems.
. . . it is most important to understand more than
it has been so far understood, that past methods of
town building are not valid anymore, and that present
and future methods must be based on entirely new
premises. And these new premises can and must be
found only in and through the existing difficulties.
But in the field of planning there is already a basic tech
nique proven through the years and developed by removing
previous mistakes. This technique is most advanced in the
^ Eliel Saarinen, The City— Its Growth, Its Decay,
Its Future (New York: Re inhold Publishing Co., 19^-3 ), P •
1ÏÏ3.
79
United States where social conditions, the permanency of
community life, and the democratic system provide an ideal
field for the growth of city planning.
The increased interest that is being shown in
city planning today is an indication that enough
people have now felt such loss to affect our national
thinking. . . . Citizens are demanding that their
government take more intelligent and more aggressive
action than was thought necessary in the past to
plan their cities and to see that development takes
place according to plan.2
Brazil can only profit by adopting such techniques
to its problems. The past experience of the American com
munity is a sufficient guaranty that these methods, properly
transposed, will be successful.
The main deficiencies of the actual community life
in Brazil can be summarized in the following branches:
1. Lack of proper independence in the actual legal
frame of the country.
2. Lack of financial support, mostly due to the
deficient revenue.
3. Lack of production to provide an independent
community life.
4. Unbalanced distribution of population through
the country.
I
5. Lack of planning in municipal affairs, especially
p
Karl Mannheim, Freedom. Power and Democratic Plan
ning (New York: Oxford University Press. 1950). 384 pp.____
80
in the small communities.
To solve these major problems the American community
has the following characteristics that can be used as
examples and adapted to Brazilian problems:
1. A strong local government, permitting the inde
pendence of community administration in community affairs.
2. An independent financial life based on proper
taxation and on a local fiscal policy. The intervention of
State and Federal governments is limited to a minimum.
3. A good distribution of population and wealth
through the country and a good system of transportation
permitting the exchange of merchandise on a national basis.
4. The presence of planning commissions in the
local administration as an established tradition and the
consciousness of the public in planning problems.
5. And, finally, the respect of the citizens for
the community in which they live, and the eagerness to
develop the standard of living in a collective basis.
These are the major characteristics of the American
community that in the opinion of the author constitute the
main reason for the actual progress reached by the American
cities.
Planning, a priori, is dreaming, for it is that
indispensable sbheming toward the future which is
innate in the child as he keeps his budding imagina
tion hopefully alert; and which scheming has, during
81
past times infused vitality into individuals, fam
ilies, communities, nations and into humanity at large
and without which scheming man were but a prosaic
matter-of-fact specimen of dally matters of fact.3
Through a comprehensive program of community planning
and technical teaching, the same stage of progress can be
reached by Brazil. And the progress of every country in
this continent will benefit the whole hemisphere. It is
the hope of the author that in the near future, by careful
planning and the adoption of the most advanced planning
techniques, the Brazilian community will be a producing
unit, self-supporting and integrated in the democratic life
of the country.
^ Saarinen, op. cit., p. 380.
B IB L I OG R AP H Y
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, James W. R., Modern Town and Country Planning.
London: J. & A. Churchill, Ltd., 1952.
Ascher, Charles S., Program-Making in UNESCO, 1946-1951» ,
Chicago: Public Administration Service, 1951»
Augur, Tracy B., Citizen Participation in City Planning.
New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 19^. 2o7 pp.
Azevedo, Fernando de, Brazilian Culture. New York: The
MacMillan Co., 195^ 562 pp.
Beals, Carleton, Lands of the Dawning Tomorrow. Indianap
olis: 1948.-------------------- ----------
Calogeras, Joao Pandia, A History of Brazil. Chapel Hill,
N. G: Percy A. Martin, 1939»
Churchill, Henry S., The City is the People. New York:
Reynal & Hitchcock, 1945»
Drucker, Peter F., The Future of Industrial Man. New York:
The John Day Co, 19%.
Franks, Sir Oliver, Central Planning and Control in War and
Peace. London: British Government Press, 194?• 235 pp.
Gallion, Arthur B., The Urban Pattern: City Planning and
Design. New York: D. van Nostrand Co., 1950.
Geddes, Patrick, Cities in Evolution. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1950.
Hilberseimer. Ludwig, The New City. Chicago: Paul Theobold,
1944.
Hillman, Arthur, Community Planning and Organization. New
York: MacMillan and Co., 1950.
Lewis, Harold MacLean, Planning the Modern City. New York:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1949»
84
MacDonald, Austin F., American City Government and
Administration. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1951.
284 pp.
Mannheim, Karl, Freedom, Power and Democratic Planning.
New York: The Oxford University Press, 1950*
Medeiros, Ocelio, 0 Governo Municipal no Brasil. Rio de
Janeiro: I.B.G.E. 194?. 253 pp.
Millett, John D., The Process and Organization of Government;
Planning. New York: Columbia Universîty Press, 1950.
Munford, Lewis, City Development. New York: Harcourt &
Brace Co., 1945.
Saarinen, Eliel, The City: Its Growth, Its Decay. Its
Future. New York: Reinhold Publishing Co., 1943.
Sert, Jose, Can Our Cities Survive? Cambridge: Harvard
University Press" 1942.
Spielvogel, Samuel, A Selected Bibliography on City and
Regional Planning. Washington, D. C.: The Scarecrow
Press, 1951.
Tunnard, Christopher, The City of Man. New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1953.
Violich, Francis, Cities of Latin America. New York;
Reinhold Publishing Co., 3Ï2 pp.
Walker, Robert A., The Planning Function in Urban Govern
ment. 2nd ed., Chicago; University of Chicago Press,
1951.
Wootton, Barbara, Freedom Under Planning. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1945.
Wright, Frank Lloyd, When Democracy Builds. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1945.
Zweig, Stefan, Brazil. Land of Future. Rio de Janeiro:
Editora Guanabara, 194!. (Translated by Andrew St.
James, New York, 1941).
The Disappearing City. New York: William Farquhar
Payson, 1932.
85
Zweig, Stefan, The Culture of Cities. New York; Harcourt,
Brace & Co., 1945.
B. PUBLICATIONS OP LEARNED ORGANIZATIONS
Local Planning Administration. Chicago; The International
City Managers* Association, 1948.
iArJVersrty o f S o u th e rn Cafîfor'nfa Llferary

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Asset Metadata

Creator Macedo Soares, Jose Eugenio de (author)

Core Title Aspects of community planning in Brazil

Degree Master of Science

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

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