This paper analyzes the connections between public and private organizations within the redefinitions of the role of the State in the context of capitalism. It emphasizes the relationship between the neoliberal diagnosis, incorporated by the Third Way, according to which the State is responsible for the crisis. It also considers the strategies of transference of the State's social policies to civil society. It focuses on the Brazilian reform project, which includes the replacement of the bureaucratic public management by a new public management and transfers the responsibility for social and scientific services to the civil society, mainly to the third sector. It thus questions the change of focus of society's participation and the social control to enforce these policies, as well as the consequences of such changes for basic education management policies, especially regarding the construction of a democratic management.
State; Public and private organizations; Third way; Third sector; Basic education management