José Fogaça, Mayor of Porto Alegre
FRONT PAGE
SiteSearch
About us
Directories
World Mayor
World index of mayors
Other mayors from Latin America
| Bogota | Buenos Aires | Caracas | Chacao | Curitiba | Florencio Varela | Guatemala City | Guayaquil | Guaymas | Havana | Hermosillo | Mexico City | Montevideo | Porto Alegre | Quito | Rio de Janeiro | Sao Paulo | Villa Nueva |
Participatory budgeting
Direct democracy
City Mayors reports news from towns and cities around the world. Worldwide | Elections | North America | Latin America | Europe | Asia | Africa | Events |
Mayors from The Americas, Europe. Asia, Australia and Africa are competing for the annual World Mayor Award. More
City Mayors ranks the world’s largest as well as richest cities and urban areas. It also ranks the cities in individual countries, and provides a list of the capital cities of some 200 sovereign countries. More
City Mayors reports political events, analyses the issues and depicts the main players. More
City Mayors describes and explains the structures and workings of local government in Europe, The Americas, Asia, Australia and Africa. More
City Mayors profiles city leaders from around the world and questions them about their achievements, policies and aims. More
City Mayors deals with economic and investment issues affecting towns and cities. More
City Mayors reports on how business developments impact on cities and examines cooperation between cities and the private sector. More
City Mayors describes and explains financial issues affecting local government. More
City Mayors lists and features urban events, conferences and conventions aimed at urban decision makers and those with an interst in cities worldwide. More
City Mayors reports urban environmental developments and examines the challenges faced by cities worldwide. More
City Mayors reports on and discusses urban development issues in developed and developing countries. More
City Mayors reports on developments in urban society and behaviour and reviews relevant research. More
City Mayors deals with urban transport issues in developed and developing countries and features the world’s greatest metro systems. More
City Mayors examines education issues and policies affecting children and adults in urban areas. More
City Mayors investigates health issues affecting urban areas with an emphasis on health in cities in developing countries. More
City Mayors examines the importance of urban tourism to city economies. More
City Mayors examines the contributions history and culture make to urban society and environment. More
City Mayors describes the history, architecture and politics of the greatest city halls in the world. More
City Mayors invites readers to write short stories about people in cities around the world. More
City Mayors questions those who govern the world’s cities and talks to men and women who contribute to urban society and environment. More
City Mayors profiles national and international organisations representing cities as well as those dealing with urban issues. More
City Mayors reports on major national and international sporting events and their impact on cities. More
City Mayors lists cities and city organisations, profiles individual mayors and provides information on hundreds of urban events. More
José Fogaça
Mayor of Porto Alegre
By Andrew Stevens, Deputy Editor
27 October 2008: The 2004 election of José Fogaça as mayor of Porto Alegre was reported around the world as the demise of the city's signature participatory budgeting policy. The mayor's office however is only one staging post of the 60-year old Fogaça's political career, which saw the mayor in capital Brasilia between 1982 and 2002 as federal deputy and then senator. The mayor was a finalist for the 2008 World Mayor Prize shortly before his October 2008 re-election for a second term. Discuss the achievements of José Fogaça
Born in 1947, Fogaça graduated from the Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, where he studied law. He then taught constitutional law at the College of Rio Grande before a media career in television and radio and as an occasional journalist.
Fogaça's political career began with a term as state deputy for the opposition Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) and was elevated to the office of federal deputy for the party in 1982. At this point Brazil was still emerging from its period of dictatorship, with the retention of the strict two party system, which Fogaça campaigned against as the city's coordinator for the Diretas Já (Direct Now!) pro-democracy current. After a single term as federal deputy he was promoted again in 1986, this time securing election as senator for the state. As a member of Congress he played a role in the drafting of the final text for the New Republic's 1988 democratic constitution.
Fogaça vied for the party's nomination for the 1990 state governor elections but only ranked third.To the surprise of many, he defected from the centrist PMDB to the post-communist Socialist People's Party (PPS) in 2001 in an attempt to secure re-election as senator, which later backfired when he lost the 2002 general election. Fogaça's political career was revived in 2004 when, as the candidate for the PPS/Brazilian Labour Party alliance (the latter being a centre-right entity), he secured election as the 35th mayor of Porto Alegre.
The "painful" electoral upset in Porto Alegre was the talking point of the 2004 Brazilian municipal elections, which saw the end of 16 years of PT governance of the city, long regarded as a party stronghold - Fogaça's victory was dismissed by former mayor and then education minister Tarso Genro thus: "The people opted for a new experience." However, following his 2004 election on behalf of the PPS, Fogaça returned to the centrist PMDB in September 2007 (having been confirmed as PPS candidate in March). It was suggested Fogaça did this to facilitate his re-election in 2008 by depriving rival Manuela D'Avila (a Communist federal deputy for the city) of the party's support.
Porto Alegre, the state capital of Rio Grande do Sul, is noted for its large communities of German and Eastern European descendents (the rest of the country was mostly settled by Portuguese colonists and then Spanish/Italian migrants). The gaucho capital, is known to many on the US-European liberal left as the first seat of the anti-globalisation World Social Forum. It is probably best known for the city's pioneering of the much-studied participatory budgeting concept, introduced by Workers' Party (PT) Mayor Olívio Dutra in 1989 (Dutra was later Cities Minister under PT President Lula's first term).
The mayor has strenuously denied that his administration intends to abandon participatory budgeting any time soon, despite it being most strongly associated with the PT. In fact, in 2006 he gave a lecture in London promoting the concept. He has also spoken at global events about the need for cities to embrace partnership with the private sector without recourse to privatisation of important city services.
Fogaça is married to wife Isabela, a recording artist. The city of Porto Alegre operates the mayor-council system of government, with 36 councillors elected alongside the mayor. The office of mayor is also subject to a term limitation of no more than two terms.
Comment & Debate
City Mayors is inviting its readers to engage in a debate on the issues raised in the article on this page. Please post your comments below. Your comments should deal with the topics of this article and must be legal and ethical. You may also reply to and/or challenge comments of other readers. While we endeavour to publish all relevant comments, we reserve the right to edit them and to reject unsuitable contributions.
Please add your comment
Mayor Monitor allows you to rate the performance of mayors from across the world Full list
Mayor Monitor (MM)
City Mayors introduces Mayor Monitor (MM), which allows residents and non-residents to rate the performance of mayors and highlight their ‘best’ and ‘worst’ decisions. Mayor Monitor uses the widely understood one-to-ten rating system, where '1' signifies an extremely poor performance and '10' ‘an outstanding one. In addition to rating mayors’ performances, citizens are invited to highlight city leaders' best and worst decisions while in office.
Over time, Mayor Monitor will provide a valuable track record of mayors’ successes and failures as well as their popularity among residents and a wider public. The results will be published on the City Mayors website and updated monthly.
The MM list currently includes more than 30 mayors from The Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia Full list