This article aims to analyze organizational forms, possibilities and tendencies of community participation, in the relation society/government, emphasizing the role of Councils. Since it is impossible to understand the different types of Councils that exist nowadays in Brazil, the text discusses the Social Organizations (OSs) and the Civil Society´s Organizations of Public Interest (OSCIPs). One of the main conclusions presented is that the councils and other forms of community participations do not exist to substitute government, but to fight for community´s rights: education, health and services of good quality.
Community participation; public social policies; social movements; councils