Intergovernmental Profile: Brazil

The federal constitution provides the basis for Brazil’s intergovernmental structure at the state and local levels. Brazil is divided in 26 provinces plus a federal district and 5,570 municipalities. There is high degree of symmetry in Brazil’s federal system, as the federal constitution prescribes the overall political structure of state and municipal governments, and uniformly assigns powers and functional responsibilities across the three levels.

State governments and municipal governments in Brazil are fully devolved subnational governments with extensive autonomy and authority. Despite features of cooperative multilevel governance intended to ensure that different government levels work together in a collaborative manner, government units at each level have their own elected political leadership; their own public administrations (including its own officers and staff), and control over their own financial resources.

Assignment of functions and responsibilities in Brazil across levels of governments is complicated, as the three levels are involved in many of the same government functions in a collaborative manner. Functions like education and health are concurrent among the three levels of government, with little clarity as to where the responsibilities for each level of government begin or end. Sometimes details of functional responsibilities are defined at the state level or in bilateral agreements between the federal government and the respective subnational unit. Generally, however, (de facto) functional assignments follow the subsidiarity principle, with municipalities being the frontline provider of key public services, such as education and public health services. Water and electricity provision are state and municipal functions depending on the states, but the federal government provides those services in some locations in the Amazon.