SOCIAL PARTICIPATION IN FEDERAL PUBLIC POLICIES IN BRAZIL: AN ANALYSIS OF THE FORMS AND DESIGNS OF PARTICIPATORY ARRANGEMENTS RELATED TO PUBLIC POLICIES

Abstract

The last ten years in Brazil were lavish in creating participatory arrangements – councils, conferences, roundtables, ombudsmen, public hearings, and workshops for participation –, in the drafting of the Multi-Year Plan and the establishment of administrative structures in the meeting the of the demands of social movements. The article argues that the efforts on social participation aimed to provide the federal public administration with greater institutional capacity, as well as tools and instruments for enhancing the permeability of the public policy cycle to the demands of society. The search for a new reorganization proposal for the state apparatus, which embraced social participation as a fundamental element of the actions of the federal government, proved insufficient to break with the legacy left by the political projects of previous governments. However, the quantitative progress of social participation in the period contributed to increased social control, thus turning the state more permeable to the public interest, with an array of Democratic Participatory design.