How does participation and representation of interests happen within democratic processes?
Democracy is the political regime in which there is the exercise of the people's power in politics. It is the most important tool in a system where the population elects its representatives through voting, which represents their freedom and their civil and political rights.
In a democracy, fundamental principles must be respected, such as: freedom of expression, religious, cultural, social, of press, among others. Thus, it is essential that society be engaged with institutional politics and with the forms of participation and representation of their interests individual and/or collective, exercising their citizenship.
The United States Declaration of Independence of 1776 establishes that “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed” and this passage is one of the delineators of the pillars of participatory democracy as we know it today. This same quote was, later, defined by President Abraham Lincoln as a “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”. In Brazil, the 1988 Federal Constitution defined the paths of participatory democracy and inspired the main participation instruments that exist today. Universal suffrage, the elective mandate, added to more traditional elements such as plebiscites and referendums, constitute some of the guarantee institutes of participatory democracy.
Within the Democratic Rule of Law, Article 5 of the Federal Constitution ensures to citizens principles such as political pluralism, freedom of expression and the right to petition, these being the basis of the legality of forms of participation, including defense of interests, discussed below. Befitting any person, physical or legal, from an individual or group action, the right to petition illustrates a good part of what participation in a democracy means, as it is defined as: “the right of any person to invoke the attention of public powers on an issue or a situation”, exemplifying very well some of the actions that civil society can exercise participating in and influencing politics.
To stimulate participation, it is important to promote access to data that leads to knowledge about what happens in the political scenario and in public administration so that society knows what is under debate and the decisions taken. Therefore, it is relevant to monitor the Legislative process, acts of the Executive, elaboration and execution of the public budget, so that, in this way, the citizen, the community, companies, NGOs have knowledge of how they can contribute to the public power and have their demands represented. In this sense, the Access to Information Law (LAI), governed by Federal Law No. 12.527/2011, is an instrument that regulates the constitutional right of access to public information and it is up to the Public Administration to ensure transparent management of information and guarantee its availability, authenticity and integrity.
That said, the transparency portals of the Federal, State and Municipal Governments, which are websites of free access for society to find information about management, servers and public resources, help promote transparency and stimulate social control. In addition, through Open Government various actions are planned aiming at the promotion of transparency, making governments more responsive and participatory. It has some pillars, such as: promotion of transparency; prevention of corruption; social participation and development of new technologies.
The participatory budget is another mechanism of democratic participation through which society participates in and influences the distribution of resources for the execution of works and priority projects and of greater social benefit, focusing on meeting the needs of the population, improving public management and consciously using public resources. It occurs through open assemblies, negotiation stages with the government and the preparation of a proposal to be sent, usually, to city councils. In addition, there are public policy councils which are also important for the formulation and implementation of public policies, possessing four functions: mobilizing; oversight; deliberative and advisory.
Other forms of popular participation are public hearings and public conferences. The public hearing is a place where representatives of the public power can expose their ideas and projects about the formulation of public policies to debate with the population, seeking to make improvements to positively impact society. While the public conference, are institutionalized spaces for social participation, with meetings convened by the Executive Power for discussions between government and civil society for definition of goals and priorities.
Other forms of civil society participation in the formulation and improvement of Brazilian public policies occurs through pressure groups, institutional and governmental relations, corporate relations, public relations and advocacy and lobbying, or through public consultations, as already cited. In this way, the engaged population is present in the monitoring and formulation of public policies, besides being able to follow closely the choices, attitudes and votes of their parliamentary representatives.
The interest groups that exercise, collectively, influence in Brazilian politics, can also be called pressure groups, lobbyists or institutional and governmental relations professionals. Through a technical and transparent action, these groups take to public decision-makers additional information on a specific topic and explain how public action can affect economic and social groups.
The participatory democracy and the mobilizations of interest groups, besides mechanisms that allow this participation, stimulate transparency and improvement of political actions. Thus, public authorities who do not have deep knowledge about all the subjects and themes they must decide and legislate on, can count on the support of society to support their decisions. In this case, the influence of the groups that will be directly affected by the measures must be a great driving force of public decisions. Thus, security is expanded and transparency is strengthened to which this process is so attached to continue exercising its social function. With the advent and popularity of the internet and social networks, a even greater possibility opens up for society to demonstrate its interests, have a greater presence in the political space and demand from its representatives of the executive and the legislative. It is necessary that the entire population has knowledge of these possibilities, besides monitoring the performance of their representatives and the use of public resources.
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This article was written in partnership with Equalitas UFMG Jr, Junior Consultancy of the Public Management course at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Learn more about Equalitas by clicking here
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