The contemporary debate, in the field of the democratic theory, is challenging the development of studies and reflections concerning the relations between participation and representation inside participative practices and experiences. In view that, in a general way, the participation happens through representation, this paper aims to analyze, starting from Brazilian experiences, two dimensions regarding the degree of specificity of the representation in participative models, which are: (i) confronting to the model of electoral representation; and (ii) inside participative experiences, especially the ones relative to two paradigmatic representation models: managing councils and participative budget.
participation; representation; managing councils; participative budget