The structure formed by the Health Councils represents an example of the importance of participatory democracy for the legitimation of the decisions on public health management. The existence of social control mechanisms of Brazilian public policies is also indispensable to the analysis of the subject matter in light of bioethics. Accordingly, the study of Comte-Sponville's ideas can aid the understanding of the role played by the Health Councils. The author refers to the techno-scientific and juridical-political orders, and he highlights the need to limit those orders through morality. Based on this theoretical model, the article attempts to comprehend the structure adopted by the Health Councils and the specific order of manifestation of social control. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of the consolidation of participatory forums and their capacity for aiding the democratization of the Brazilian institutions, as well as the need of increasing the social movements' participation, indicating that mobilization cannot be limited to the formal spaces of social control.
Health Councils; Social Control Policies; Community Participation; Bioethics