This text presents an analysis on the dimensions of participation and the possibilities of enlargement of citizenship, having as reference public policies of education, health and environment at the local level. The articulating theme is popular participation in public administration and the qualitative transformations in the relationship between State and civil society, as a reference of a turning point and strengthening of public policies centered that emphasize active citizenship. Our challenge is to analyze, on one side, the impacts of participatory practices that point out to new configurations of the quality of citizenship, and, on the other side, the characterization of those barriers that have to be overcome to enable the multiplication of management experiences that articulate efficiently complexity and democracy. The analysis is centered on the strengthening of the public space and the opening of public administration to the participation of Civil Society in the formulation of public policies, and in the always complex and contradictory institutionalization of innovative participatory practices that establish ruptures with the existing process.
Participation; Citizenship; Social policies; State; Civil society