ABSTRACT
The essay reflects upon the deliberative democracy and upon the limits and possibilities of the municipal health councils to become institutions that practice and settle it. It is shown that such councils face a process of institutional delegitimization that can subtract their importance in the decision-making process, a risk enhanced by the political crisis that the country is experiencing. For promoting social participation and deliberation as an organized process in the pursuit of consensus in decision-making and for considering the consensual decision the basis of institutional legitimation, it is concluded that a deliberative turn has the potential to boost the councils in overcoming the risks of delegitimization.
KEYWORDS:
Democracy; Deliberations; Health councils