Participação social no poder local: uma avaliação da institucionalização em capitais brasileiras

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the possibilities of social participation within the scope of local power, according to national legislation, and the level of institutionalization of this participation in seven capitals of Brazil, from the survey of social participation indicators. The theoretical framework included the discussion of important concepts for this work, such as: democracy; participation; participatory democracy and effectiveness of social participation. The methodological procedures adopted basically consisted of bibliographic and documentary research on national legislation that deals with social participation in local power and a survey and analysis of indicators on social participation in municipalities, using the IBGE's Basic Municipal Information Research. The research did not assess aspects related to the effectiveness of existing participation instances, it only sought to identify them in the capitals surveyed. In the results, it was possible to verify that only two of the seven capitals have a Participatory Budget in operation, and that only one of the seven capitals held a housing conference, in a period of four years of management, despite the importance that these public policies have. Based on the results and discussions presented, it is possible to conclude that there are possibilities and it is desirable to expand the institutionalization of social participation in the researched capitals.