This article analyzes the influence of the Brazilian National Campaign against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which took place from 2002 to 2006, in the FTAA agreement decision-making process. It discusses the relation between participative democracy and contemporary social movements, such as the Movement for a New Globalization, and reflects upon social participation within public policies. The results point out that the campaign actions have not directly influenced the agreement closure, but show that there was intense social participation in the decision-making instances of the FTAA negotiations, an experience that was inexistent before in what concerns the Brazilian foreign policy. For this research, we carried out 17 semi-structured interviews, and counted on 7 focal groups, with 44 participants, totaling 61 interviewees.
Participative Democracy; Social Movements; Public Policies; FTAA
