Abstract:
This paper discusses the democratization of social policies through decentralization in Brazil. The authors make a theoretical analysis of the dynamics of decentralization of public policies in the Brazilian context and its repercussions on the democratization of social policies based on two phenomena that conform the attempts to modernize the state: the diffusion of municipal councils and the promotion of partnerships between civil society organizations and governments for the provision of social services. This is a theoretical paper that builds on different literature sources on popular participation, policy councils, relations between state and civil society and Brazilian political culture. The analysis points to the persistence of important challenges to the consolidation of political processes guided by the participatory democracy in Brazil, which eventually renew and bring new dimensions for traps and risks of centralization of power, technocratic power and expansion of the clientelism in contemporary Brazilian political reality.
Keywords:
Civil society organizations; Public policies; Popular participation; Municipal councils; Participatory democracy