Brazilian experiences of participation and citizenship: a critical look

Since the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship in the mid-1980s, democratic innovation has become the hallmark of this vibrant and populous country. Innovations in participatory governance, such as participatory budgeting and participatory sectoral policy councils and conferences have provided crucibles for new meanings and expressions of citizenship and democracy. This paper suggests that the contribution that Brazil’s democratic innovations have to deepening democracy, enhancing accountability and engaging citizens lies not only in their innovative institutional design, but also in what Brazilian experience can teach us about how to create the enabling conditions for genuinely inclusive and participatory governance.

The authors explain how in key areas of social policy, millions of historically excluded people in Brazil have begun to claim their entitlements to basic services. The paper demonstrates the significance of analysing the existing political landscape within which institutions of participation are implanted. Political landscapes reveal a number of broader enabling factors that have made Brazil’s democratic experiments what they are. The paper explains how the literature on participatory governance suggests that the potential for the success of these institutions lies in the conjunction of a series of critical factors. These include the political will that extends to an ideological commitment to popular participation and strong civil society that can make effective use of the spaces that open up for participation. Key findings include:

• political will is crucially important in the process of instituting participatory governance and in the design of participatory institutions
• strong, organised and mobilised civil society organisations have a vital role to play in making participatory governance viable and effective
• closer attention must be paid to questions of representation and accountability within civil society
• with legal frameworks and guarantees, participation passes from being something that government can selectively use to consult with its citizens, to a binding obligation.