Participação e Representação nos Conselhos Municipais: legitimação, institucionalização e controle

Abstract

The municipal councils are characterized as democratic mechanisms of participation and political representation and were institutionalized in Brazil by means of the Federal Constitution of 1988. Their character allows the approximation, in the same sphere, of representatives from the public power and organized civil society, in order to perform social control, supervising and deliberation about policies, programs and/or social segments historically in vulnerable situation and/or social excluded. It is noticed that in some cases, there is a contradiction in the municipal councils between their objectives established by law and their everyday practices, because, instead of providing civil society with the exercise of social control over State actions, most of the time the reverse happens, so that the state is the one who exercises some control over society. This research analyzes the institutionalization of "participation" and "representation", along the management of the Municipal Councils from Picos-Piauí, over 2015-2017, in order to identify their peculiarities and dimensions. We used methods of bibliographic research, documentary research and field research. Data collection consisted in Documentary Analysis, developed in 08 (eight) Municipal Councils of Picos, application of Questionnaires and Interviews with the Councilors representatives from society (CRS), allied to simultaneous observation. The research results show contradictions, in the locus of research, between the legal requirement form the State and the pressures of the society, therefore, it is not possible to affirm, in the context of the Municipal Councils of Picos, that it is only the State who Controls the society, or even the reverse, because such relations are permeated by tensions that sometimes allow councils to propose, contest, deliberate and/or supervise, and sometimes allow the Public Power to control (in the sense of interfering) these same proposals, deliberations and supervising actions.