Fala que eu te escuto? : ouvidorias parlamentares e o seu potencial democratizante : o caso de Minas Gerais

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the designs of the parliamentary ombudsman in Brazil and the pattern of action that prevails in their relationship with citizens. For this, it discusses how the political science analyzes public ombudsman and the main criticisms of literature, taking focus its institutional design. He sought to understand whether there is some kind of participatory dynamics, analyzing the ombudsman from the perspective of social control, political involvement and discursive exchanges between the informal and formal public sphere. For the study used a qualitative approach, focusing on document analysis on the content of the formal resolutions of state Assemblies to adopt the ombudsman as well as the information provided in their sites. It was also made a case study of the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais in order to better understand how the work of the ombudsman is structured, the principles that guided towards its creation in 2002, and the interactions of this instrument with other actors that may be relevant to its performance, identifying them and the relationships established between them. For that, were made individual interviews with deputies who were ombudsmen person and public servants who had some relation with this institute. The study led us to conclude that the ombudsmen are constituted as an access mechanism for citizens, amplifying the spaces that he has to present their demands, but they are not as a communication channel or even participation.