Estado, sociedade e esfera pública: um olhar sobre conselhos municipais de desenvolvimento em Pernambuco

Abstract

This study concerns a qualitative assessment of the municipal advisory boards for development in the state of Pernambuco. Discussions about the political significance and consequences of the institutionalization of participatory spaces on constructing citizenship have attracted criticism and challenges, especially with regard to the quality and results of civil society s participation in these spaces. We have considered it important to conduct a study based on evidence from one of these participatory experiences, with the objective of contributing to understanding their possibilities and limits, as public spheres that incorporate the conquest of rights and the democratic construction of the State. We also endeavor to reflect on the potential of the advisory boards as inducers of a new political culture that acts on its members, such that they acquire the skills to transcend the corporate level of their representations by taking on the role of translators of broader social demands that contribute to democratizing public administration. To tackle this theme, the study has been based on a bibliography that has made it possible to capture of the diversity of angles within the theme. In order to build the empirical object of the investigation, 20 open interviews were conducted with those who ranged from representative advisors of civil entities to government representatives and independent consultants, whether or not linked to NGOs. We use, as support for the analysis, an examination of a set of documents that define the legal cornerstones for the functioning of the advisory bodies, in addition to others related to the results of how some of them function. The reflections arising during the course of the study suggest that the key issue for understanding the participatory process lies in the public sphere which has emerged from a new type of interaction between the State and civil society, in specific situations.