The Effectiveness of councils as participatory institutions

the case of social policy councils in São José dos Pinhais/PR

Abstract

The 1988 Federal Constitution established a series of participatory mechanisms and bodies that opened space for democratic participation in the elaboration and supervision of public policies. Since then, the right to social participation has been elevated to a constitutional principle, consolidating the possibilities of implementing participatory democracy. It is management councils emerge as institutions of direct participation. In view of this, it is worth considering whe ther social public policy councils are effectively participatory institutions. In this context, it was as an object of study the social policy councils of São José dos Pinhais-PR. To answer this question and achieve the research objectives, we chose to collect data from publicly accessible information and for content analysis, the following categories of analysis were assigned: social participation and effectiveness of management councils. The main results show that although the councils present conditions that demonstrate deliberative effectiveness, they lack more pedagogical procedures, which may reflect the absence of conflicts and clashes in the deliberative processes and greater diversity in interinstitutional relations.