Participation, oportunities, and interests

Abstract

The objective of this article is to discuss the topic of participation trying to evaluate the relevancy of the theory assumptions on the deliberative democracy for the understanding of the participative experiences that have been institutionalized in the country, as the example of the managing board of public policies and experiences of Participative Budget. Because the deliberative democracy is characterized as a model that rescues the principle of popular sovereignty anchored on the ideals of participative equality and pluralism, the set of problems and limits of the participation that the studies have listed, defy the search for analytical instruments that contribute for the disruption of reducing analyses, either for reiterating or naturalizing a supposed generalized apathy of the population; either for not problematizing a supposed relation (immediate) between democracy and participation. Far from getting the complexity of combinations of variables that are placed on the participative phenomena, this article intends to analyze two issues that have been pointed out, among others, in literature, as problems that mine the deliberative democracy, which are: the political apathy, and the issue of the interests – and the conflicts – within the participative processes. Key words: Participation; Deliberative democracy; Interests; Political apathy.