This article assesses changes in the pattern of collective action of social movement arising of the effects of their engagement in participatory institutions of policy-making, considering three interdependent dimensions - organizational, relational and discursive. Institutional effects in the social movement are examined from the case study of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights of Serra, located in the metropolitan area of Espírito Santo, after 1990 through qualitative and quantitative method. The correlation between the institutional engagement of the movement and the changes in the pattern of collective action has effects of complexification organizational, pluralization of social network, and cooperation and contestation discourse in the society-state interaction.
social movements; institutional engagement; complexification organizational; society-state interaction