The paper brings the context of violence in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,and the political cost it represents for the federal government and the state government of Rio de Janeiro to maintain the distribution of authority vis-à-vis institutional safeguards in Brazilian Federalism.
Even though there was no judicial transgression with the Presidential decree authorizing the Federal Intervention in Rio de Janeiro, from February to December 2018, we argue that it represented a case of “credit assignment”problem given the weakness of institutional safeguards in Brazilian federalism to avoid opportunistic behavior of the federal government and Rio de Janeiro state government.