This article concerns the participation of the general public in the planning and implementation of urban policies in a local authority in Brazil. The focus of this work is to analyze popular participation, foreseen in the Brazilian Constitution in the case of the municipal management, and its concrete effectiveness in the water and sewerage system in the Itaipu region of Niterói in Rio de Janeiro. From the theoretical and empirical analysis, we discuss how the current institutional apparatus and civic culture can or cannot be a facilitator for popular participation in municipal management.
Municipal management policies; Popular participation; Public management