As Conferências Públicas Nacionais como forma de inclusão política: alguns determinantes da capacidade inclusiva desses espaços de participação e deliberação

Abstract

This dissertation analyses the process of political inclusion in the National Public Conferences, which are public spaces of participation and deliberation of the civil society and the government, convoked by the President. Starting from the assumptions that guide the recent studies about participatory institutions and public spaces of participation and deliberation in Brazil, this study attempted to point out what affects the political inclusion in these public spaces and to describe how the conferences are structured and how they work. By political inclusion, we consider the incorporation of the deliberations, approved in those spaces, in the political agenda of the Federal Government. In order to do it, we chose the national conferences of aquaculture and fisheries, of policies for women and of policies for promotion of racial equality, given the centrality of those issues for Lulas government. This president turned those issues into government policies by creating a Special Secretariat, with status of Ministry, for each of them, connected to the structure of the Presidency. This study describes, in details, the conferences and points out the aspects that characterize and differentiate them. The analysis aimed to test the hypothesis that the conferences capacity of inclusion varies according to the characteristics they assume. By characteristics, we mean the theme of the public policy discussed, the issue of the deliberations approved, the kind of history and organization of the civil society involved, the participatory and deliberative model adopted and the amount of budget received by the institution that organizes the conference.