An empirically oriented analysis of deliberative and participatory systems: health and policy for women's councils and conferences in Minas Gerais ¹

Uma análise empiricamente orientada sobre os sistemas deliberativo e participativo: conselhos e conferências de saúde e de política para mulheres em Minas Gerais

Un análisis empíricamente orientado sobre los sistemas deliberativo y participativo: consejos y congresos de política de salud y políticas para las mujeres en Minas Gerais

Une analyse empirique des systèmes délibérative et participative: conseils et conferences sur la sante et de las politiques envers les femmes au Minas Gerais

This article analyzes whether and how conferences and councils on policies for health and women in Minas Gerais interact with each other to shape a participatory and deliberative system in these policy areas. Thus, the article analytically and empirically evaluates: (1) how actors, topics, and norms act as connectors of these forums in each policy area; (2) whether those connections promote an integrated system in each policy area. To investigate the connections among the forums, we proposed four different techniques: observations of council meetings and conferences, document analysis, surveys, and interviews. We mixed these techniques to compare these two contrasting cases. As a result of this comparative analysis, we argue that the legal and political infrastructure in which policies are immersed induces the connectors to work systemically. Health policy, which is legally and institutionally more predictable than policy for women, ensures more favorable conditions for the actors to coordinate their actions, for the topics to be debated and transmitted, and for the norms to be disputed and legitimized. Therefore, we claim that the political-institutional resources are significant for the connectors to shape a participatory and deliberative system in each policy area.

participatory and deliberative systems; health policy; policy for women; public policy councils and conferences