This paper consists of an analysis of the business social responsibility (RSE in Portuguese) as a means of suppression of politics as a sphere of dissent manifestation. The performance of organizations such as Group of Institutes, Foundations and Companies (in Portuguese, GIFE) and of the Instituto Ethos de Empresas e Responsabilidade Social (Ethos Institute of Companies and Social Responsability) has been contributing significantly to the legitimation of RSE actions as sources of solutions for social problems. In this sense, we understand that the ideological foundation of that situation lies in the discourse that seeks to minimize the role of the State as promoting agent of social development and to attribute to the poor, as individuals, the responsibility for their permanence in or out poverty. For no other reason, such practices promote the beneficiaries' involvement in the solutions of their problems, what seems to be positive from the point of view of creation of a sphere of more democratic decision-making. However, it is necessary to have in mind that these beneficiaries' knowledges are only considered if emptied of effectively dissentious postures.
business social responsibility; business social activism; civilian society; new civilian associativism; dissent
