Abstract
In the last decade, Brazilian government has diversified the forums for dialogue with civil society in the management of public policies. The Council for Economic and Social Development (CDES) was created in 2003 to advise the Presidency about development policies. This article aims to analyze its effectiveness in terms of the dialogue with civil society in decision-making and its influence on government policies from 2003 to 2012. We investigate how the institutional design (endogenous factor) and the governmental coordination (exogenous or contextual factor) impacted on its effectiveness. This research adopted a qualitative methodology based on documentary analysis of the legislation, term of reference, minutes and other strategic documents produced by CDES. We conclude that the Councils effectiveness is impacted by problems related to democratization of internal processes, such as: lack of transparent criteria for the selection of their members and low capacity of inclusiveness of non-governmental counselors. The proximity to the political coordination and the lack of and the lack of interaction with other national participatory institutions affected the purposeful capacity and the effectiveness of deliberations. Considering that local and state administrations have created similar development councils, this study aims to contribute to the debate about the influence of institutional design and the governmental coordination on the qualification of participatory policies.
KEYWORDS:
participation; civil society; Council for Economic and Social Development; public policies; effectiveness
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