This article responds to the interest in analyzing theoretical concepts referring to social policies, and discusses a new cartography of categories related to the debate about popular participation in social assistance policy. Breaking with a trend that seeks to disable an active role by the masses, this study is part of a commitment to expanding thinking about social policy beyond the traditional realm - in which the policy is simply a strategy to accommodate conflicts - and to emphasize its political and liberating potential. It also seeks to contribute to the analysis of current social policies, concerning possibilities or interdictions, as strategies to fight inequality and guarantee rights, based on the political dispute for the surplus expropriated from the masses.
social policies; popular participation; social assistance