Public Policies and Regional Development: Exploratory Considerations on the 'Program Territories of Citizenship program-Brazil'

Abstract

The Territory of Citizenship Program (PTC) was created in 2008 aimed at reducing Brazilian regional socioeconomic inequalities and standardizing some federal actions and projects related to territorial policies. The main goal of this study was to verify, from the perspective of its institutionality, the progress of the PTC, considering the main challenges to the achievement of its objectives. Thus, it has started with a discussion about public policies, development and territory until the decree that institutionalized the PTC, among other available information about the program. The methodology used was descriptive, exploratory, based on bibliographical and documentary research. The history of territorial policies indicates that these were not priorities for the Brazilian State, obtaining relative prominence only in the last decades. In this way, there are significant obstacles for such policies to provide a more equitable development. Thus, it is concluded that there is considerable difficulty for the PTC to reach the goals proposed when it was created. In addition, there is an explicit limitation regarding the attempt to standardize the implemented actions and the expected results, since the territorial peculiarities were ignored, preventing the achievement on part of the objectives in the program.