The proliferation of experiences of participation that envisage the widening of social control over policies and politicians has become an important feature of Brazilian political landscape, as it has worldwide. This article suggests a useful analytical framework for comparing the diversity of these innovative democratic mechanisms as participatory designs oriented towards social control. With the help of this framework, we examine the configuration of two contrasting designs of different national origins: Mexico and Mexico and Brazil.
Participation design; democratic control; accountability; social control
