The article discusses the limits and possibilities of some participatory democracy experiments in regularization of urban land, by analyzing the experience of Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). It adopts an interdisciplinary approach, which uses concepts of Political Science, Geography and Law, to support the importance of participatory democracy in the process of regularization of urban land. The analysis of the major experiments conducted in Porto Alegre makes use of a typology that differentiates management participation from political participation. On the premise that political participation implies effective influence on policy-making, three participatory institutions are analyzed: Participatory Budgeting (Orçamento Participativo), Urban and Environmental Development City Council (Conselho Municipal de Desenvolvimento Urbano Ambiental) and Sustainable Development Integrated Project of Lomba do Pinheiro (Projeto Integrado Desenvolvimento Sustentável da Lomba do Pinheiro). Findings suggest that the latter, in its planning phase, is an example of germinal political participation, as it has implemented participatory practices that allowed citizens to influence public decision-making in order to transform their own social reality.
Urban land regularization; Participatory democracy; Lomba do Pinheiro; Political participation