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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. women aged 25-60 years from a rural district of Northeast Brazil were used to explore the applicability of three explanatory models of influences on the construction and expression of satisfaction: expectations; contextual dynamics; mediating filters.The first two of these argue that a lack of information and a reluctance to be negative respectively lead to high expressed satisfaction that is artificial. The concept of mediating filters proposes that respondents construct an evaluation that takes account of wider issues, such that high levels of expressed satisfaction are, in this sense, real. All three models contribute towards answering the paper"s question.However, our data suggest that it is an informed, but low, expectation of health careprovision that leads to alternative strategies, including resort to patron-client networks, and success in gaining good health care that is important. Mediating filters identified in this study were culpability and the reference time-frame. We raise questions for practice and offer a combined explanatory model.3

Performance of the local health system and contingent influences in Northeast-Brazil: breaking vicious and virtuous circles Performance do sistema de saúde local e influências contingentes no Nordeste do Brasil: quebrando círculos viciosos e virtuosos Resumo A teoria organizacional tem enfatizado por muito tempo a importância de influências contingentes e ambientais na performance e desempenho organizacional. Igualmente, pesquisas também demonstram a importância da cultura política local e de fatores informais na gerência e desempenho do sistema local de saúde, estabelecendo círculos viciosos e virtuosos que influenciam e contribuem para aumentar as desigualdades nos sistemas descentralizados da saúde. Com base em um estudo etnográfico longitudinal esta pesquisa buscou entender a inter-relação entre estes elementos em um município rural localizado no Nordeste do Brasil em um intervalo de quatro anos. No segundo momento da pesquisa foi constatado que o desempenho do sistema local de saú-de tinha melhorado. Dois fatores principais parecem ter interagido para causar essa melhoria: a visão e o poder de liderança de um indivíduo; e a profissionalização do sistema local de saúde a partir da contratação de um número significativo de profissionais. As origens destes fatores podem ser encontradas nas esferas local, estadual e federal. Palavras-chave Reforma sanitária, Políticas públicas, Descentralização, Clientelismo, Governo local, Brasil Abstract Organizational theory has long emphasized the importance of contingent, environmental influences on organizational performance. Similarly, research has demonstrated the importance of local political culture and informal management on the performance of the local health system, establishing vicious and virtuous circles of influence that contribute to increasing inequalities in performance among decentralized local health systems. A longitudinal ethnography studied the relationship between these elements in the same rural municipality in Northeast Brazil after a four-year interval. The second study found the local health system performance much improved. Two main factors appear to have interacted to bring this about: leadership vision and power to implement of one individual; professionalization of the local health system by hiring a significant number of senior health staff. The origins of these influences combine initiatives at local, state and federal levels.

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