PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE MUNICIPAL CONFERENCES FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Through the democratization rebuilt after the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1988, Brazil develops public policies in society, through a representative model of participation, which incorporated the real needs of the communities. The objective is to study and analyze the Municipal Conferences on the Rights of Children and Adolescents as a space for the promotion of participatory democracy and the construction of the guarantee of rights. In methodological terms, the research is characterized as exploratory, descriptive and case study. As for the means, bibliographic, documentary and field research, with the use of interviews and participation in municipal conferences. Data analysis was objective-oriented, considering the collected data and complemented by participant observation.  In the participatory processes, where the first experiences were the Public Policy Management Councils, advances and criticisms are recognized, because stimulating participation while respecting the plurality of representations is a challenge that persists in the trajectory of the exercise of citizenship. The research verifies the effectiveness of the instances of participation for the improvement of public policies, based on the Reports of the Municipal Conferences on the Rights of Children and Adolescents, in a municipality in the region of Corede Noroeste Colonial, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. A qualitative, documentary, bibliographic, descriptive research that uses content analysis. The results demonstrate, at the municipal level, the development of the participatory process, and point to the need for constant improvement of this process.