ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the effects of decentralisation and of the role of non-elected metropolitan authorities upon local political autonomy and environmental management. Salvador is the main city of the Salvador Metropolitan Region (SMR). The SMR comprises ten municipalities and covers an area of 2,181 square kilometres. The city’s politicians are forced to ask for the support of other groups who were not elected to govern the city, such as the state government, the construction industry and the metropolitan authority. The solid waste management project is the most important and expensive project within the Metropolitan Project, accounting for 41% of the investment. One paradox emerges from the case of Salvador: the political power and financial decentralisation which accrued to the city through the 1988 Constitution were insufficient to free Salvador’s politicians from dependence on state political leaders, its metropolitan agency and the construction industry.
