Estado, política cultural e manifestações populares: a influência dos governos locais no formato dos carnavais brasileiros

Apesar das controvérsias sobre a forma como as festas populares têm sido tratadas, é fundamental reconhecer que, além das questões econômicas, elas envolvem um componente social muito importante. Fatores como o fortalecimento de identidade e do sentimento de pertencimento, reforço de laços comunitários, participação popular na formulação e implementação das políticas e ocupação de espaços públicos têm íntima relação com essas festas. Dentro desse cenário está inserida a maior das festas populares brasileiras, o carnaval. Os festejos carnavalescos são estudados nesta Dissertação. A idéia é analisar como o a Administração Pública e o Carnaval estiveram sempre muito próximos, em relações que por vezes eram consensuais e, em outros momentos, bastante conflitantes. Para a realização desta dissertação foram coletados diversos dados públicos, que compõem a parte quantitativa da pesquisa. Os dados qualitativos foram obtidos através de várias entrevistas, com atores governamentais e não-governamentais ligados à festa. Além do aspecto descritivo sobre a atuação dos governos locais em relação aos carnavais citados, este trabalho pretende ampliar uma dimensão pouco explorada nas pesquisas sobre a cultura em geral e sobre o carnaval em especial: a Economia do Carnaval. Os dias de realização da festa geram grandes ganhos financeiros e é fundamental analisar quem, de fato, são os beneficiários através de uma pergunta básica, mas de crucial importância: Carnaval para quem? Esta dissertação visa colaborar com a discussão sobre o papel que os governos locais podem, com algumas medidas, melhorar as condições socioeconômicas dos trabalhadores, criando mecanismos capazes de desconcentrar a renda, reduzindo assim as desigualdades socioeconômicas do país.

Although they are affirmed as very important, the cultural politics not yet receive the same attention that others social politics. In the local governments this occurs in accented way, as in the great majority of Brazilian cities, the culture simply is ignored or treated as a secondary area. But it has exceptions, and it happens when the issues are the popular parties, mainly for the capacity of these events to bring financial profits for the localities. But the controversies on the form as these parties have been treated, are basic to recognize that, beyond the economic questions, they involve a very strong social component. Factors as the feeling of belonging and identity-building process, reinforcement of communitarian and social bows, popular participation in the formulation and implementation of the politics and occupation of public spaces have great relation with these parties. With these features is the greater Brazilian popular party: the carnival. The carnival parties are studied in this work. The objective is to analyze the relation between the Public Administration and the Carnival, that had been sometimes consensuals and, at other moments, conflicting relations. If we define the high relevance of cultural politics, either is possible to think equally about the relevance of carnival politics, mainly in the local sphere. E, through this analysis, better understand this national manifestation, under the perspective of the limits and potentialities that these parties have to improve the quality of life of the Brazilian citizens. More specifically, the carnivals of four cities had been analyzed: Recife (PE), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Salvador (BA) and Santos (SP). The three first ones had been selected because of the great national and international prominence that they have. The Santos's carnival, for having been suspended for some years, brings the aspects of the continuity and discontinuity of public politics. For the accomplishment of this work a lot of public data had been collected composing the quantitative part of the research. The qualitative data had been gotten with interviews, with governmental and non-governmental actors related to carnival. Beyond the descriptive aspects of the local governments' role in relation to the mentioned carnivals, this work intends to a very little explored dimension in the research on the culture and the carnival in special. After all, much has been said on the Economy of Culture and it's necessary to research deeply about the Economy of Carnival. The days of the party generate great financial profits but is important to analyze who, in fact, are the great beneficiaries through a basic, but very importante, question: Carnival for who? Because, while the immense majority of that people who work in the carnival receives bad remuneration, great enterprise groups and the sponsors become the great beneficiaries of the party, with enormous financial profits in the commercialization of its products, in conditions near to monopolies. This work aims to collaborate with the studies about the public policies that the local governments can, in different ways, improve the labor conditions, creating mechanisms to change the income concentration situation, and then, collaborate with the socioeconomics inequalities reduction in Brazil.