Desenvolvimento institucional e produtivo municipal no Maranhão

Abstract

Considering the reality of low development in the state of Maranhão and, consequently, the resistance of municipalities to moving towards higher levels of socio-economic development, the research proposal for this thesis was born. As there are no stabilizing forces in the social system, it is understandable that there is a need to determine which institutional and productive factors prevent or slow down the municipal development process in the state of Maranhão. Faced with this problem, the aim of this study was to analyze the profile of municipal institutional and productive development and the socio-economic mobility factors in the municipalities of Maranhão. To this end, the study analyzed two dimensions, institutional and productive, with variables that add other institutional and productive categories of Maranhão's municipalities. This thesis is hypothetical-deductive and explanatory, as well as applied in nature. The data used was obtained from a set of different secondary sources - covering the decades 2000-2010 and 2011-2020. Factor Analysis (FA) was used to determine the factors, and the scores generated by this statistical method were used to create the Municipal Institutional and Productive Development Index (IDIPM). From the variables corresponding to the institutional and productive dimensions, in the first decade (2000-2010), the model selected 36 variables and, in the second decade (2011-2020), 39 variables that made up the factors in the respective periods, thus corresponding to the sub-indices that formed the IDIPM. The main results showed that there were seven factors responsible for the process of institutional and productive development in each decade. In the two periods analyzed, the composition of each group consisted of three factors referring to the institutional dimension and four belonging to the productive dimension. Based on the index drawn up and stratified into five levels of development, it was found that the majority of Maranhão's municipalities are in the Low Development (LD) condition and are heavily dependent on the public administration sector for the generation of formal Jobs. In addition, the state has seen an increase in regional disparity, especially in the Northern Region of Maranhão. However, among Maranhão's mesoregions, the South Maranhão Mesoregion has the best IDIPM, and brings together the municipalities with the best levels of development, due to its dynamic agricultural sector. In view of the scenario of low development in Maranhão, development strategies that consider local specificities, such as the existing territorial heritage of the locality, are fundamental to breaking the circle of low growth and economic development in Maranhão. In short, this thesis confirms the hypothesis that institutional and productive forces act in a regressive direction in the development of Maranhão's municipalities.