Gomes, Sandra CristinaSilva, André Luis Nogueira da2016-05-182016-05-182015-07-27SILVA, André Luis Nogueira da. Os estados no SUAS: uma análise da capacidade institucional dos governos estaduais na assistência social. 2015. 892 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Estudos Urbanos e Regionais) – Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Urbanos e Regionais. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 2015.https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/20511This paper deals of the effects generated by institutional designs in the behavior of political actors. The literature that discusses the implications of federal arrangements in the production of public policies to dock at two opposing arguments: (1) the federal configuration would cause dispersion and variation in service provision between subnational governments; and (2) the central government would own mechanisms to induce the provision of national policies in more homogeneous levels, similar to unitary states. The research is part of this discussion because it analyzes the effects of the institutional design of the Sistema Único de Assistência Social (SUAS) in the decisions of states in Brazil. Therefore, we analyzed the institutional capacity built by the 26 state governments after the implementation of SUAS, conceiving this system as defined mechanism of government functions and federative cooperation.It is argued that the existence of a heterogeneous institutional capacity of state governments in social assistance is a result of the autonomy contained in the institutional design of SUAS to this level of government. This freedom of action relativize the idea that the implementation of national public policy systems would generate positive (or homogeneous) effects in all subnational governments, at the same time as it preclude to generalize the premise of fragility of the states in the brazilian federal plan.porAcesso AbertoFederalismoDescentralizaçãoCapacidade institucional.Governos estaduaisAssistência socialmasterThesisCNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::GEOGRAFIA::GEOGRAFIA REGIONAL: ESTUDOS URBANOS E REGIONAIS