The Brazilian city of São Paulo has pioneered an innovative system for its citizens to become involved in the city’s administration. Brazil’s 1988 constitution decentralized power and created new mechanisms for increasing participation at municipal, state and federal level. New research examines progress of São Paulo in order to see what lessons can be learnt about the nature of citizen participation, and how it may be enhanced.

Researchers from the Institute of Development Studies analysed the political process in São Paulo to identify which organisations participated in political activity. Arguing that a distinction needs to be drawn between individual and group actors, the researchers focus on the problems new civil society groups experience in trying to access and engage with formal arrangements for citizen participation. The report examines the factors which affect participation by comparing groups that do participate in the political process with those that do not.

Two of the most important initiatives launched by the Worker’s Party in 2002 in São Paulo were a participatory process for deciding the city’s budget and policy councils designed to ensure equal representation of bureaucrats, civil society actors and professional associations in local governance. Focusing on the views of associations working with all social classes in the city, researchers found that:

• Organisations with ties to the state or to political parties are more likely to participate: those with service delivery contracts with the state (such as commercial utility companies) and with links to the Worker’s Party are more engaged than those without such ties or those with ties to trade unions and religious organisations
• Wealth does not affect participation: new institutions have created opportunities for social groups hitherto excluded from decision-making
• In the first year of participatory budgetting, 55 000 people took part: their decisions affected 12 per cent of the total municipal budget
• Organisations in the health sector are more likely to participate in the process of setting the budget
• Political and activist organisations are considerably more likely to be involved in that process.

Based on their research in São Paulo the authors suggest that:

• The dominant idea of ‘civil society’ common in current policy debates is problematic as it does not take into account how societies differ across international, political and cultural contexts.
• The current theories of ‘empowered participation’ look at participation through too narrow a lens, and ignore the question of who actually participates
• There are new forms of mass politics emerging. They are very vibrant and this shows the strength of political activism outside the confines of the existing political party systems.

The authors warn that because of the dispersed and diverse nature of citizen participation and its relative novelty in many parts of the world, current knowledge about promoting participation lags behind what is actually happening in places like Brazil.

Source(s):
‘Who participates? Civil society and the new democratic politics in São Paulo, Brazil’ by Peter P. Houtzager, Adrián Gurza Lavalle and Arnab Acharya, Working Paper 210, Institute of Development Studies, October 2003 Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 12 January 2004

Further Information:
Peter P. Houtzager
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex.
Brighton BNI 9RE
UK

Tel: 44 (0) 1273 877151
Fax: 44 (0) 1273 621202 / 691647
Contact the contributor: p.houtzager@ids.ac.uk

Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK

Adrián Gurza Lavalle
Political Science
Pontificia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUCSP)
Rua Monte Alegre, 984
Perdizes - São Paulo
SP - CEP: 05014-901
Brazil

Contact the contributor: layda@usp.br

Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Sao Paulo (PUCSP)

Other related links:
USAID Programme on democracy and governance

Logo Link - A network of practitioners working to improve democracy through participation

'Citizens are the Cornerstone of Democracy'

Empowering People - A Guide to Participation