The democratization of public management: the relationship between the administrators, innovation, and the municipality¿s demographic size

Abstract

Democracy and local power have been thoroughly studied during the last decades. This paper analyzes some of their aspects: the profile of the municipal administrators, their ability to innovate, and the size of the population. The democratization of public management was studied considering the "innovations" in management and healthcare in the counties. The data was collected through questionnaires sent to the Brazilian towns in the research ¿Healthcare municipalization and local power in Brazil¿. The statistical analysis adopted a second order factorial analysis model in order to identify the correlation the administrator's profile, managerial innovation, and the demographic size of the county. Even though there is correlation between the size of the population and the administrator's profile, as well as with the managerial innovation, it is not as strong as the correlation between the manager and innovation. The paper concludes that the municipality¿s small size is not an obstacle for innovation or management democratization. It recommends local power strengthening, as well as training the administrators as agents of local development.