DEMOCRACIA, PARTICIPAÇÃO SOCIAL E POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS: OS IMPASSES NA CONSTRUÇÃO DA POLÍTICA URBANA BRASILEIRA

Abstract

The aim of this work is to discuss the impasse in the consolidation of the Brazilian urban policy, despite the existence of vast participatory institutional framework. Tensing theoretical assumptions that consider the opening of democratic spaces of social participation as a key element for the realization of equitable and less exclusive public policies, the dilemmas of urban policy in Brazil in the light of the reality of Porto Alegre are presented. After classifying the situation of demands included in the Participatory Budgeting investment plans within 2002 and 2010 on the subject of housing, this work strives to draw the dynamics of public policies in contexts covered by consolidated participatory forums. Finally, it is argued the necessity of including other explicative variables that go beyond the existence of participatory institutions. In the case of urban policy, the analysis focused on the actors involved in implementation processes and management policy is essential. Social actors and state agents are located in different spaces of institutional engineering of public policy, and the lowest or highest degree of achievement of social demands will depend on strategic negotiation of these actors in that space.