This essay is based on the recent literature about representation on public polices management councils. There are several analyzes by various authors on the subject, however, it's necessary to think about the confluence of these ideas, in order to contribute to a minimum consensus (obviously not definitive) about the possibilities and limits of democratic exercise in management councils, need that this article aims to answer, at least in part. To develop this analysis, we review the literature in order to seek authors from different areas of knowledge that somehow deal in their works the theme of democratic theory and participation and representation, trying to observe convergences and counterpoints in their ideas to after launch issues minimally consensus on the subject. The authors analyzed make it clear that the discourses that permeate the issues of participation and representation have as background different democratic theories that almost throughout the last century conflict for hegemony: representative democracy and participatory democracy. Thus, the ideal that underpin the concepts studied here are expressed in different ways, according to the theory that underlies it. The fact is that participation and representation can be exercised both in a representative democracy and in a participatory democracy. However, have different meanings and practices. The public polices management councils are a kind of instance created to the exercise of participatory democracy. However, there is exerted indirect participation through representation. This concept, in turn, is strongly rooted to the ideals of representative democracy, making necessary to establish differences between represent (representative democracy) and represent (participatory democracy), so that counselors representatives of civil society in management councils not repeat the mistakes of the practice parliamentary representative, at the risk of driving the representation in these participatory instances to a distance that would undermine the exercise of participatory democracy in our country. It seems obvious the importance of establishing a relationship between representatives and represented that approach them. Thus, important points such as accountability and own way of choosing the representative for their entity appear to play a role interesting to legitimize the representation and make it different from parliamentary representation. Despite obstacles to the realization of a true participatory democracy, the management councils feed a changing political culture in Brazil, the culture of participation, that can replace our historical submission culture of the people to the power of the elites.
social participation; representation; representation; management council