This article analyzes the strengthening of public space and the opening of public management to participation of civil society in the preparation of public policies. It also analyzes the always complex and contradictory institutionalization of innovative practices that establish ruptures with the predominant dynamic in areas and sectors of administration, specifically in environmental management. It analyzes the shared public management of water resources in Brazil and the qualitative transformations in the relationship between State and society, as references of inflection and reinforcement of public policies based on expansion of citizenship. The conclusion summarizes the impacts of participative practices, which despite controversies, point to a new quality of life, that opens new sociopolitcal spaces and qualitatively influences the transformation of water resources management in Brazil.
water resources management; democracy; participation